Well, probably the best way to die....
Fossils in flagrante delicto: Turtles' sex act frozen in time
Scientists say it's first known case of vertebrates seen copulating in the fossil record
By Charles Choi
Contributor
updated 6/19/2012 11:16:27 PM ET
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Fossil turtles have been caught having sex, the first known case of animals with backbones found copulating in the fossil record, researchers say.
The mating turtles may have been caught in a death trap as they sank to deeper layers of the lake, where they were having sex nearly 50 million years ago, the researchers speculate. The lake's deep layers may have held deadly volcanic gases or other toxins.
Scientists made their discovery at the Messel Pit in Germany, which once was a deep volcanic crater lake in a wet, tropical environment. The pit was a quarry originally mined for the oil in the shale there, but over the years, it has become the richest site in the world for understanding the living environment of the Eocene, the epoch between 57 million and 36 million years ago when mammals began conquering the planet. Animals there included early horses, reptiles, primates, honeybees, giant ants and countless birds and bats.
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47884202/ns/technology_and_science-science/#.T-OGg45CBgt
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