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Maternal care in Mid-Cretaceous lagonomegopid spiders
- Source :
- Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- The Royal Society, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Maternal care benefits the survival and fitness of offspring, often at a cost to the mother's future reproduction, and has evolved repeatedly throughout the animal kingdom. In extant spider species, this behaviour is very common and has different levels and diverse forms. However, evidence of maternal care in fossil spiders is quite rare. In this study, we describe four Mid-Cretaceous (approx. 99 Ma) amber specimens from northern Myanmar with an adult female, part of an egg sac and some spiderlings of the extinct family Lagonomegopidae preserved, which suggest that adult lagonomegopid females probably built and then guarded egg sacs in their retreats or nests, and the hatched spiderlings may have stayed together with their mother for some time. The new fossils represent early evidence of maternal care in fossil spiders, and enhance our understanding of the evolution of this behaviour.
- Subjects :
- Offspring
media_common.quotation_subject
Zoology
Myanmar
Biology
Cretaceous
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Lagonomegopidae
Extant taxon
Animals
Research Articles
General Environmental Science
media_common
Spider
spiderling
General Immunology and Microbiology
Fossils
Reproduction
Spiders
General Medicine
Amber
behaviour
Palaeobiology
egg sac
Female
maternal care
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14712954 and 09628452
- Volume :
- 288
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....3203fff08b9f0f370c7aaa160153cdb6
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2021.1279