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.
Highlights
Parental care refers to any investment by the parent that enhances the fitness of their offspring, and often at a cost to the survival and future reproduction of the parent [1,2]
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 guarded egg sacs in their retreats or nests, and the hatched spiderlings may have stayed together with their mother for some time
Almost all known cases of parental care are maternal except Manogea porracea, an araneid spider that was reported with amphisexual care [5,17]
Summary
Parental care refers to any investment by the parent that enhances the fitness of their offspring, and often at a cost to the survival and future reproduction of the parent [1,2]. A number of fossil egg sacs have been found in Cenozoic (65.5 Ma to present) amber, including a sac carried in the chelicerae by a female synotaxid spider [19,20]. They represent the evidence of maternal care in Cenozoic fossil spiders. The earliest fossil records of spider egg sacs were reported from Mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, but most of them are doubtful due to the lack of detailed description and photographs [21,22,23]. The new fossils provide early evidence of maternal care in fossil spiders
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