Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 111, Issue 39, Pages 14170-14174Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1412280111
Keywords
sociobiology; paleoethology; paleoecology
Categories
Funding
- National Basic Research Program of China [2012CB821903]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [91114201, 41222013, J1210006]
- Outstanding Youth Foundation of Jiangsu Province [BK2012049]
- US National Science Foundation [DEB-0542909]
- Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
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The reconstruction and timing of the early stages of social evolution, such as parental care, in the fossil record is a challenge, as these behaviors often do not leave concrete traces. One of the intensely investigated examples of modern parental care are the modern burying beetles (Silphidae: Nicrophorus), a lineage that includes notable endangered species. Here we report diverse transitional silphids from the Mesozoic of China and Myanmar that provide insights into the origins of parental care. Jurassic silphids from Daohugou, sharing many defining characters of Nicrophorinae, primitively lack stridulatory files significant for parental care communications; although morphologically similar, Early Cretaceous nicrophorines from the Jehol biota possess such files, indicating that a system of parental care had evolved by this early date. More importantly, burying beetles of the genus Nicrophorus have their earliest first record in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, and document early evolution of elaborate biparental care and defense of small vertebrate carcasses for their larvae. Parental care in the Early Cretaceous may have originated from competition between silphids and their predators. The rise of the Cretaceous Nicrophorinae implies a biology similar to modern counterparts that typically feed on carcasses of small birds and mammals.
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