You don't need to be a fossil expert to work out what these two turtles were up to just before they died
Discovered: Messel Fossil Pit, Germany, 1987
Age: 47 million years
Location: Senckenburg Natural History Museum, Frankfurt
The French famously call it the little death. But for this pair of mating turtles, the little death became a big death. As they sank down into the depths of a lake in their post-coital bliss, they reached toxic waters and perished. Their fossil remains leave no doubt that they died in the act of mating.
Around 30 fossils of mating insects have been found, most of them caught in amber. But the turtles, Allaeochelys crassesculpta, are the first ancient vertebrates to be caught in the act. They lived in a volcanic lake in what is now ...
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