Coevolution of Parental Care and Egg Size

The model and the examples presented here make three points. First, they point out that the correlation between parental care and egg size may not be entirely due to selection for an increase in egg size under the umbrella of parental care but instead may be due to secondary selection for parental c...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The American naturalist 1989-04, Vol.133 (4), p.591-603
Main Authors: Nussbaum, Ronald A., Schultz, David L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal ethology
Biological and medical sciences
Eggs
Embryos
Evolution
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Notes and Comments
Protozoa. Invertebrata
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
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Summary:The model and the examples presented here make three points. First, they point out that the correlation between parental care and egg size may not be entirely due to selection for an increase in egg size under the umbrella of parental care but instead may be due to secondary selection for parental care following selection for larger eggs by other factors. Second, they show that a change in egg size or parental care favors change in the other and, therefore, that the two tend to coevolve regardless of which is initially changed. Finally, the model and the examples show that environmental change that alters embryonic or juvenile survival can affect the optimum combination of egg size and parental care in such a way that no general prediction about the pattern of correlation between egg size and parental care among populations can be established.
ISSN:0003-0147
1537-5323
DOI:10.1086/284939