Ancient Creature Carried Its Young in Tethered Capsules

The fossil of a strange ancient creature has been discovered. The creature had its young in tiny capsules that were tethered to its body like tiny kites. The creature has been named Kite Runner by the researchers from Yale, Oxford, the University of Leicester, and Imperial College London .

The tiny arthropod, Aquilonifer spinosus, lived about 430 million years ago. It was less than half an inch long. Only one fossil of the creature has even been found. It was discovered in Herefordshire, England. The lone fossil contains 10 juveniles in different stages of development in pouches that were attached to the parent by tethers.

The creature lived on the sea floor during the Silurian period. It was eyeless and covered by a shield-like structure. The pouches containing the juvenile creatures are described as resembling "flattened lemons."

Derek Briggs, Yale's G. Evelyn Hutchinson Professor of Geology and Geophysics and lead author of the study, says in a statement, "Modern crustaceans employ a variety of strategies to protect their eggs and embryos from predators -- attaching them to the limbs, holding them under the carapace, or enclosing them within a special pouch until they are old enough to be released -- but this example is unique. Nothing is known today that attaches the young by threads to its upper surface."

The creature's name comes from the 2003 bestselling novel, The Kite Runner, by Khalid Hosseini.

Briggs explains the common name choice: "We have named it after the novel by Khalid Hosseini due to the fancied resemblance of the juveniles to kites. As the parent moved around, the juveniles would have looked like decorations or kites attached to it. It shows that arthropods evolved a variety of brooding strategies beyond those around today -- perhaps this strategy was less successful and became extinct."

A research paper on A. spinosus was published here in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Photo: D. Briggs, D. Siveter, D. Siveter, M. Sutton, D. Legg

More from Science Space & Robots