Aquilonifer spinosus lived 430 million years ago, in the Silurian period, and its appearance is reminiscent of a prawn with long antennae. While it is not related to any living animal today, it probably belongs to the same group as insects, crustaceans, and centipedes . It was one centimeter long and blind, according to the analysis and virtual 3D reconstruction of a strange fossil unearthed in Herefordshire, England.
Although it was another detail of its anatomy that has perplexed the researchers who are examining the creature, from the universities of Oxford, Yale, Leicester and Imperial College London: Aquilonifer spinosus carried its young, in different stages of development, tied by a filament, as if they were comets . In the reconstruction of the fossil, ten “cradle capsules” are distinguished connected to the back of the adult specimen, a breeding strategy that had not been observed so far in the animal world.
“Modern crustaceans have developed multiple techniques to protect their eggs and embryos from predators: they glue them to their limbs, keep them under the shell or enclose them in a special bag until they grow up and can fend for themselves. But this example is unique, ”explained Derek Briggs, Professor of Geology and Geophysics at Yale University. Probably, Briggs surmises, the technique was not evolutionarily successful enough and Aquilonifer spinosus became extinct.
The experts also considered other hypotheses, such as that the companions were parasites . However, their disposition does not seem the most appropriate to feed on the alleged victim, endowed with an exoskeleton.
