Scientists Discover Oldest Evidence of Maternal Love in 99-Million-Year-Old Fossil of Spider

According to a study describing the unique discovery of an example of spiders' maternal instincts, made by a group of scientists, the ancient evidence will enhance researchers' understanding of how arachnids developed parental reflexes.

In an endearing incident, researchers have discovered the oldest evidence of maternal love in the fossil of an extinct female spider. The team of researchers led by Paul Selden, a professor of geology at the University of Kansas mined a 99-million-year-old fossil in which an adult female spider was discovered protecting its already-hatched offspring from Northern Myanmar in Southeast Asia.

The researchers reported their findings in a study that came out in the journal the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences on Wednesday.

The scientists found the spider in hardened tree resin that had locked the arachnid and its babies in chunks.

"The fossil records provided physical evidence through these little snapshots of maternal love that now exists in other arthropods but records of it are rare. The female holding onto an egg sac with little tiny spiderlings inside – that's exactly the position that you would find female spiders guarding their eggs. So, it really is a typical female spider behaviour caught in an instant by this fossilisation process", Paul Selden, a professor of geology at the University of Kansas and the study's co-author said.

The spider belongs to the extinct lagonomegopidae family and it can be distinguished by a large pair of eyes on the front corners of the head.