What behavior, evidenced in 160-million-year-old fossils, suggests early complex parental care?
Answer
Insects actively protecting their offspring
Fossils dating back about 160 million years reveal insights into ancient behavior alongside morphology. Specifically, these older water bug specimens demonstrate the earliest known instances of insects engaging in the active protection of their young. This finding is significant because complex parental care strategies are often considered a more recent evolutionary development in many other insect lineages. The presence of this behavior so early indicates that selective pressures favoring offspring protection in the aquatic niche were already strong during that ancient time frame.
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