PARIS (AFP) ― It may not have been love as we know it, but around 385 million years ago, our very distant ancestors ― armored fish called placoderms ― developed the art of intercourse.

So suggest a team of evolutionary scientists, who point to the fossil of a placoderm species blessed with the name of Microbrachius dicki.

Measuring about 8 centimeters in length, M. dicki lived in habitats in modern-day Scotland ― where the first specimen was found in 1888 ― and in Estonia and China.

Placoderms have previously been found to be the most primitive jawed animal ― the earliest known vertebrate forerunner of humans.

But they now have an even more honored place in the book of life.

Microbrachius is the first known species to copulate in order to carry out internal fertilization, according to a paper published on Sunday in the journal Nature.

Male fish had bony, L-shaped genital limbs called claspers which transferred sperm into the female, a more effective way of reproduction compared to spawning in the water, the study says.