Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42668548›Full record

ArticleiScience2026

Frozen parental care behavior in a pseudoscorpion trapped in Eocene Baltic amber.

Chen Feng, Corentin Jouault, Qingqing Zhang, Arnoud Boom, Jana Christophoryová, Xiangbo Guo, Yuhe Gao, Chunpeng Xu, Yu Liu

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in iScience, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Chen FengYunnan Key Laboratory for Palaeontology, Institute of Palaeontology, Yunnan University, Kunming 650500, China.
Corentin JouaultOxford University Museum of Natural History, University of Oxford, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PW, UK.
Qingqing ZhangYunnan Key Laboratory for Palaeontology, Institute of Palaeontology, Yunnan University, Kunming 650500, China.
Arnoud BoomSchool of Geography, Geology, and the Environment, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK.
Jana ChristophoryováDepartment of Zoology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Comenius University, Mlynská Dolina, Ilkovičova 6, SK 842 15 Bratislava, Slovakia.
Xiangbo GuoKey Laboratory of Zoological Systematics and Application, College of Life Sciences, Hebei University, Baoding 071002, China.
Yuhe GaoPublicity Center of Beijing Forestry and Parks, Beijing 101118, China.
Chunpeng XuState Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China.
Yu LiuYunnan Key Laboratory for Palaeontology, Institute of Palaeontology, Yunnan University, Kunming 650500, China.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Direct fossil evidence of behavior is rare, which limits our understanding of the early evolution of social and reproductive strategies. Parental care and phoresy are two important life-history traits in arthropods: parental care can improve offspring survival, whereas phoresy enables small animals to disperse by attaching to larger, more mobile carriers. Pseudoscorpions are a diverse and ecologically widespread group of arachnids, with parental care well documented among living species. However, the fossil record of this behavior remains extremely limited. Here, we report the earliest known evidence for the combined occurrence of parental care and phoresy in pseudoscorpions, preserved in approximately 35-million-year-old Baltic amber. The specimen preserves a female pseudoscorpion carrying a brood sac while attached to a dipteran, apparently grasping one of the fly's hind legs with her left pedipalp. This association shows that brood care and phoretic dispersal were already coupled by the Eocene. It further suggests that phoresy may have allowed brooding pseudoscorpions to disperse while maintaining physical protection of their developing offspring.

Indexed as

brood saceocene fossilphoresypseudoscorpiones

Identifiers

PMID42668548
PMCPMC13524697

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.