Princeton University Press eBooks· 2019
The Evolution of Parental Care
- 3,163citations
- 2019year
Short summary
This book synthesizes animal studies to explain why parental care varies across species, the roles of males and females, and how care is adjusted based on offspring benefits and parental costs.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Explains the evolutionary reasons for variation in parental care extent.
- Investigates why care is sometimes exclusive to females, males, or shared.
- Analyzes how parental care is adjusted based on offspring benefits and parental costs.
- Examines resource allocation strategies parents use for sons versus daughters.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Synthesizing studies of parental care in a wide variety of animals, this book is the first attempt to provide general answers to the following important questions: Why does the extent of parental care vary so widely between species? Why do only females care for eggs and young in some animals, only males in others, and both parents in a few? To what extent is parental care adjusted to variation in its benefits to offspring and its costs to parents? How do parents divide their resources between their sons and daughters? In this book separate chapters examine the evolution of variation in egg and neonate size, of viviparity and other forms of bearing, and of differences in the duration of incubation, gestation, and lactation. The book reviews theoretical and empirical predictions concerning the evolution of parental care and examines the extent to which these are supported by empirical evidence. The author examines the distribution of parental care among offspring, reviews the empirical evidence that parents invest to different extents in their sons and daughters, and discusses the degree to which parents manipulate the sex ratio of their progeny in relation to the availability of resources.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Princeton University Press eBooks, 2019 · DOI ↗
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Field: Gender Studies
Gender StudiesSocial Sciences