What better way to leave this mortal coil than while doing something you love? For many of us, that would be sex, and we can now draw inspiration from some ancient turtles who died while doing just that very thing.
Several pairs of fossilized turtles (nine to be exact) were recently unearthed in the Messel Pit near Darmstadt, Germany that were all joyously engaged in mating when they met their end. They are believed to be the first fossils of any invertebrate species to be engaged in sex at their time of their demise. The turtles were of a now-extinct species called Allaeochelys crassesculpta.
It's believed the lovers all perished due to the release of a poisonous gas at the bottom of a volcanic crater, which the crater emitted periodically, killing many of the creatures that lived in and around the area, which is why the fertile ground for uncovering fossilized remains in the present day.
"We propose...that the turtles initiated copulation in habitable surface waters, perished when their skin started to absorb poisons while sinking during their embrace into deeper portions of the lake made toxic from the buildup of volcanic gases or decay of organic matter, and fully or partially separated once they reached the bottom of the lake" explained Dr. Walter Joyce, University of Tuebingen, Germany.
Unearthed from the Messel Pit over the years are thousands of fish species (the area contained lakes 50 million years ago, around the time the copulating turtles in question perished), as well as birds, insects, reptiles, and even bats. Many of the fossilized remains have been incredibly well preserved over the years (millions of them), some even containing the fur and feathers which garbed the once-living creature.
The findings from this discovery are reported in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.
