Discovery

It was reported in ScienceDaily that an international group of researchers led by Dr. Renate Matzke-Karasz, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich, has indirectly detected signs of giant sperm in fossilized ostracods.

Picture shows the length of the filamentous, helical sperm-cells of freshwater ostracods can reach up to ten times the body length of its producer. The longest known ostracod sperm cell is 1 cm long. This scanning electron micrograph shows a bundle of such giant sperm extracted from Eucypris virens, which are approximately 1.8 mm long. (Credit: Dr. Renate Matzke-Karasz)

An organs that are required for transferring giant spermatozoa has been detected, make it seems to be an evolutionary successful reproduction strategy. According to the research, males who produce a large number of tiny spermatozoa quickly and cheaply better their chances for reproduction, while females invest in only a few, yet larger ova. But if the sperm have to compete inside the female’s body, quality sometimes seems to trump quantity. Dr. Robin James Smith of Lake Biwa Museum in Shiga, Japan ponders said, this finding shows that  reproduction with giant sperm had already developed around 100 million years ago in this group of ostracods. But, one thing that stillunknown is the matter whether giant sperm ostracod sperm arose multiple times over the course of evolution, like those of Drosophila, or whether they have been a persistent feature in certain groups for millions of years.

For the complete report,visit ScienceDaily.

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