Brood care in a Silurian ostracod
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Updated: Jul 15, 2026

Establishment and Maintenance of Gnotobiotic American Cockroaches (Periplaneta americana)
Published on: May 28, 2021
David J Siveter1, Derek J Siveter, Mark D Sutton
1Department of Geology, University of Leicester, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK. djs@leicester.ac.uk
Abstract:
An exceptionally preserved new ostracod crustacean from the Silurian of Herefordshire, England, preserves eggs and possible juveniles within its carapace, providing an unequivocal and unique view of parental brood care in the invertebrate fossil record. The female fossil is assigned to a new family and superfamily of myodocopids based on its soft-part anatomy. It demonstrates a remarkably conserved egg-brooding reproductive strategy within these ostracods over 425 Myr. The soft-tissue anatomy urges extreme caution in classifying 'straight-hinged' Palaeozoic ostracods based on the carapace alone and fundamentally questions the nature of the shell-based Palaeozoic ostracod record.
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