Ancient 'Nursery in the Sea' Shows Parental Care Existed 450 Million Years Ago

University of Leicester researchers and colleagues have found an "ancient nursery in the sea," which shows that  tiny animals that lived  450 million years ago took care of their young ones.

These are the oldest fossils of ostracods found by the researchers. The discovery of female ostracod along with eggs and hatchlings supports the idea that brood care was prevalent in animals even 450 million years back. Researchers have named the species Luprisca incuba after Lucina, goddess of childbirth, according to a news release. The fossils were found in the mudstone rocks in New York State, USA.

Ostracods are related to Crustacea (shrimp, lobsters) and have some 8,000 species. Ostracods have the most complete fossil record of any crustaceans. The present study shows that parental care existed several millennia ago and is still roughly the same.

"This a very rare and exciting find from the fossil record. Only a handful of examples are known where eggs are fossilized and associated with the parent. This discovery tells us that these ancient tiny marine crustaceans took particular care of their brood in exactly the same way as their living relatives," said David Siveter, Professor of Palaeontology at the University of Leicester.

The rocks from which researchers obtained the specimen date back to the Ordovician period of geological time- a time when the ostracods diversified extensively. These tiny creatures lived in low-oxygen environments in seas bordering ancient North America.

The specimens discovered by Siveter and his colleagues from the UK, U.S and Japan, are some two to three millimeters long. The specimens have well-preserved hard and soft parts. Some fossils even had clutches of eggs attached.

The present study shows that parental care hasn't changed much over the past millions of years. But, why do animals choose to take care of the young? According to a study published earlier in PLOS One, animals spend time and energy raising their progeny to ensure paternity, to guard the mate and for opportunity for additional matings.

The study is published in the journal Current Biology.