Piper (1) offers the fascinating observation that the attachment of small arthropods by threads to the Silurian arthropod Aquilonifer (2) is similar to that of the nymphs of Uropodina mites to larger arthropods (e.g., beetles) to facilitate their dispersal in patchy habitats (phoresy). Clearly these two examples are profoundly separated by time (∼430 Mya) and ecology (the one fully marine, the other terrestrial), but it is worth considering the possibility that the adherence of tiny arthropods to Aquilonifer represents the behavior of some sort of marine mite ancestor.