risking one's life!Fossil records of the earliest insect mother love

Text ｜ "China Science News" reporter Shen Chunlei

Insects have maternal love, and the adaptation of their motherhood care can be traced back to the Jurassic world.

The discovery was proved by Huang Diying, a researcher at the Nanjing Institute of Geological Palace of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

They have advanced the direct evidence of insect education for nearly 40 million years in advance.

On July 13, the relevant research results were published online in the British "Royal Society Journal B".

Kara's ecological restoration picture Sun Jie painting

Parenting is an important adaptive behavior, referring to the protection, care and feeding of the parents of the eggs or offspring, and has evolved independently in mammals, birds, reptiles, limb animals, especially social insects, especially social insects.

The behavior of carrying eggs is a form of pro -generationing. Usually, single parents carry eggs or larvae after spawning to provide protection, which can effectively increase the incubation rate and offspring survival rate.

The Huang Diying team conducted a systematic research on the Kara registered fossils in the Tiger Gully biological group of Zhongwanwan, and identified 30 pieces of female adult fossils with eggs in 157 Kara registered fossils. Analysis, revealing the unique dysentery of the mid -night Jurassic.

Huang Diying introduced that about 5 to 6 rows of female individuals in the left middle foot of some female individuals can be tightly arranged on the left middle foot tibia, and about 6 to 7 of each row of eggs with 1.14 mm to 1.20 mm in length superior.

The left medium tibia of the female with eggs is thicker than its right middle tibia and the middle foot tibia of the male individual.

Researchers speculate that a large amount of predation risks and periodic food sources caused by the Daohu Gougou biological group make Kara's strokes facing huge ecological pressure. Or a response to the changes in the ecosystem of the ancient lake.

Huang Diying said: "Kara's crickets can provide physical protection for eggs during the incubation process and effectively prevent eggs from dryness and hypoxia, which is of great significance for its evolution and reproduction. Will pay a higher price, such as increasing the risk of predation. "

He also pointed out that the childcare strategy of childcut eggs has not been found in other existing and extinct insect groups, but it is not uncommon in aquatic limb animals. Its fossil records can be traced back to the Chengjiang biological group of the early Cambrian.

But the behavior of the foot portable eggs on one side is alone.

The study highlights the diverse and little -known care strategies of the middle generation of insects, and helps understand the evolution and adaptation of insect education.

Related thesis information:

https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0447

"China Science News" (2022-07-15 The 1st edition of the news)

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Edit | Zhao Lu

Capture | Guo Gang

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