Longest Known Sperm Create Paradox of Nature

If there was a prize for biggest sperm in nature, it would go to Drosophila bifurca, a tiny fruit fly whose coiled sperm would measure more than 2 inches long if straightened out.

That's 1,000 times longer than an average human sperm.

"To put that into perspective, if humans made sperm that long and you took a six-foot man and stood him on the goal line of a football field, his sperm would stretch out to the 40-yard line," said Adam Bjork, a Ph.D. student at Syracuse University in New York.

Along with Syracuse University biologist Scott Pitnick, Bjork examined why any animal, let alone a tiny fruit fly, would evolve such lengthy sperm.

The pair's findings, detailed in the June 8 issue of the journal Nature, show that the answer lies in the body of the female fruit flies.

Full Story Here