Perhaps it’s no wonder world stock markets fell sharply today after this news out of Germany suggested a momentary shift in focus – from the eurozone fiscal crisis to the fossilized remains of copulating turtles.  While the Fed twists and Flaherty tightens, aroused paleontologists are frantically working to determine how and why nine reptilian couples died at such an intimate moment:
“The largely aquatic turtles mate in open waters and often begin to sink when they’re copulating — which is no problem in most lakes but proved fatal in the Messel pit lake.  ‘Mating in turtles is quite strenuous and can go on for long periods,’ says Lyson.  The scenario ‘is very speculative but plausible,’ says Donald Jackson, an animal physiologist at Brown University.  It’s possible that the ancient turtles, like some modern species, were relatively oblivious to their surroundings when they were copulating and, therefore, unable to escape the deadly depths.”