Crustacean 100 million years ago had sperm as long as its body

September 9th, 2009 WASHINGTON - University of Exeter researchers have found new evidence to explain how female insects can influence the father of their offspring, even after mating with up to ten males. In the study, boffins found that female crickets are able to control the amount of sperm that they store from each mate to select the best father for their young.

August 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An international team of scientists has discovered two tiny worms much smaller than a rice grain and a strange crustacean that has no eyes and poisonous fangs, among several new species of marine life found in an underwater cave in Lanzarote, Canary Islands. Tom Iliffe, professor of marine biology, Texas A and M University, carried out the research, along with researchers from Pennsylvania State University, the University of La Laguna in Spain and two German universities - the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hanover and the University of Hamburg.

August 25th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have discovered a previously unknown species of predatory crustaceans in the Canary Islands, which have a head equipped with long antennae for eyes, powerful prehensile limbs and poisonous fangs. The species was found by an international team of scientists and cave divers in the Tunnel de la Atlantida, the world's longest submarine lava tube on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands.

August 2nd, 2009 LONDON - Discovering a lock-and-key mechanism between sperm and egg cells, scientists may have moved a step further towards sparing infertile couples the pain, anguish and expense of fruitless IVF treatments. Dr. Martin Brinkworth, a member of the team at the universities of Bradford and Leeds that discovered the lock-and-key mechanism, says that their work could help understand why so many couples with no apparent reproductive problems are unable to conceive.

July 10th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A team of University College London and University of Oxford researchers say that a study on the evolution of ejaculation strategies has shown that attractive males release fewer sperm per mating to maximise their chances of producing offspring across a range of females. Writing about their findings in the journal American Naturalist, the researchers say that their findings suggest that, paradoxically, matings with attractive males may be less fertile than those with unattractive ones.

July 10th, 2009 LONDON - Attractive males release fewer sperm per mating to maximise their chances of producing offspring across a range of females, according to a new study. The findings by researchers at UCL (University College London) and the University of Oxford suggest that, paradoxically, mating with attractive males may be less fertile than those with unattractive ones.

July 9th, 2009 LONDON - Scientists are calling for more tests to ensure that artificial sperm created by some British researchers are identical to their natural counterpart, saying that further proof may make them a valuable tool to understand male infertility. Karim Nayernia and his colleagues at the University of Newcastle recently treated male embryonic stem cells (ESCs) with a range of substances, which converted them first into germline stem cells, and finally into spermatogonial stem cells.

July 1st, 2009 WASHINGTON - Having sex every day improves men's sperm quality, an Australian study has revealed. In a study of men with fertility problems, researchers found that daily ejaculation for a week cut the amount of DNA damage seen in sperm samples.

June 15th, 2009 LONDON - Biologists studying sperm whales in the North Atlantic have found that mothers use organised babysitting sessions so they can go hunting for food. Scientists at the University of St Andrews, Durham University and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, have discovered that females share responsibility for the younger members of a pod by establishing networks of carers.he whales are specially adapted to allow them to make long, deep dives.

May 1st, 2009 LONDON - Spiders in Israel have been seen indulging in a violent but evolutionarily effective mating strategy, which guarantees direct fertilisation of eggs in the ovaries. In the so-called traumatic insemination, males of the Harpactea sadistica species pierce the abdomen of females, and thus fertilise their eggs directly in the ovaries.

April 13th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Fertility specialists heralded the birth of a baby girl who was conceived through in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) at their lab with sperm frozen 21 years ago, a world record. Chris Biblis, 38, of Charlotte (US) was treated for leukemia from age 13 to 18.

March 26th, 2009 WASHINGTON - While it is thought that men remain fertile throughout life as compared to women, Swedish researchers have now shown that a fertilising sperm can get help from the egg to rejuvenate. Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, say that their finding is an important step towards future stem cell therapy.

March 22nd, 2009 LONDON - Although described as crustacean-like animal in 1912, Hurdia victoria is just one part of a complex and remarkable new animal that has links with the largest group of living animals, the arthropods. The fossil fragments have been pieced together from the famous 505 million-year-old Burgess Shale, a Unesco World Heritage Site in British Columbia, Canada.

March 20th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Scientists have reconstructed the fossil of a crustacean-like creature, to reveal that it is just one part of a complex and remarkable new animal dating back to 500 million years, that sheds light on the origin of the largest group of living animals, the arthropods. Hurdia Victoria, the creature in question, was originally described in 1912 as a crustacean-like animal.

January 24th, 2009 LONDON - A novel method, developed by scientists for testing the health of a sperm before it is used in IVF, boosts chances of conception. University of Edinburgh researchers have created a way of tagging individual sperm quality, so that only healthy ones are used in fertilising an egg as part of IVF treatment.