First animal to have sex may have been a Scottish fish called "M. dicki"

Scientists believe they have discovered the origin of copulation.

An international team of researchers says a fish called Microbrachius dicki is the first-known animal to stop reproducing by spawning and instead mate by having sex.

The primitive bony fish, which was about 8cm long, lived in ancient lakes about 385 million years ago in what is now Scotland.

The research is published in the journal Nature.

Lead author Prof John Long, from Flinders University in Australia, said: "We have defined the very point in evolution where the origin of internal fertilisation in all animals began.

"That is a really big step."

Prof Long added that the discovery was made as he was looking through a box of ancient fish fossils.

He noticed that one of the M. dicki specimens had an odd L-shaped appendage. Further investigation revealed that this was the male fish's genitals.

"The male has large bony claspers. These are the grooves that they use to transfer sperm into the female," explained Prof Long.

Fossil of Microbrachius dicki
Microbrachius dicki fossils are common - but nobody noticed the sexual organs until now
The female fish, on the other hand, had a small bony structure at their rear that locked the male organ into place.

Constrained by their anatomy, the fish probably had to mate side by side.

Irn Bru wrote:That's it, that's it. They've cracked it.

You see there was a band named Marillion and the lead singer was Scottish. He was commonly known as Fish and his real name was Derek Dick. It's all fallen into place now hasn't it?

Derek Dick went to Dalkeith High School which is the school that I went to as well.

Scotland can lay claim to Scots born bringing many things to to the world including Telephones, televisions, Penicillin, steam engines, the Pinkerton detective agency, the Buick motor company and now we can add shagging to the list.

This is wonderful news.