The ostracod is a pinhead-sized crustacean, a distant ancestor of water fleas and shrimps, that lived for sex, according to David Siveter, professor of palaeontology at Leicester University.

Comparing minute crustaceans called ostracods offers a great way to study sexual dimorphism, or the physical differences between the sexes. So far, studies have been limited by a focus on living ...

Scientists in Australia made an incredible reproductive discovery: 17-million-year-old sperm. The male sex cell was found in the fossilized remains of freshwater crustaceans, known as ostracods.

Freshwater ostracods, the bivalved crustaceans ubiquitous in diverse aquatic habitats, have gained prominence as both contemporary ecological sentinels and as agents in palaeoenvironmental ...

An ostracod's penis can be relatively big too; up to a third of the animal's total volume. It's why the fossilised creature was dubbed Colymbosathon ecplecticos, which is Greek for "outstanding ...

Based on the fossil record and the behaviour of modern ostracod, the male used their fifth limb to transfer extraordinarily long but immotile sperm into the female. The sperm was enormous too ...

The Cretaceous basins of Brazil have long been recognised as treasure troves of ostracod microfossils, whose diversity and preservation offer an unrivalled window into past environments and basin ...

A dotted line shows the site of the sperm-moving structure called a Zenker organ in this microscope view of a Pseudocandona marchica ostracod. This tiny crustacean, a relative of shrimps and crabs ...

The life history of Neoechinorhynchus rutili (Mueller, 1780) was demonstrated experimentally. Shelled embryos are released by the adult worm into the lumen of the digestive tract of freshwater fishes ...

Using 3D X-ray reconstructive technology, scientists analyzed several ostracod specimens, studying their limbs and reproductive organs. Experts discovered ripe sperm inside the sperm receptacles ...