Recently, researchers Huang Bing and Rong Jiayu from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, conducted a detailed study on a fossil population of early Silurian brachiopods, approximately 436 million years old, discovered in the Tongzi and Renhuai region of Guizhou Province, South China. They have revealed for the first time how these ancient marine bottom-dwellers “cleverly” used tiny structures on their bodies, their setae, to maintain "social distancing" from each other, forming a remarkably orderly living arrangement. This research has been published in the journal PNAS.