The Evolution of Parental Care

Parental care is a trait that shows tremendous diversity both within and across different animal taxa, and is an important topic in evolutionary biology and behavioural ecology. Parental care forms an integral part of an organism’s reproduction, development, and life-history, and because caring for offspring means that parents have less time, resources, or energy available to search for or attract mates, the evolution of parental care is closely linked with sexual selection. In addition, the evolution of parental care represents an important step in the evolution of sociality as it leads to the formation of family groups, which provides a bridge to more complex forms of social structures. But because parents and offspring share only some of their genes, conflicts emerge in sexually reproducing organisms that shape the evolution of parental care and offspring strategies to demand care. As a consequence, the family also constitutes a model to understand the evolutionary tension between cooperation and conflict. This edited book is: The first comprehensive review of the evolution of parental care for over 20 years Integrates contributions from leading international authors to provide an interdisciplinary synthesis of the field Establishes key concepts and draws on general principles whilst emphasizing a broad taxonomic approach Emphasizes behavioural interactions and the co-evolution of parents and offspring Includes the latest research findings, suggesting avenues for future study Parental care includes a wide variety of traits that enhance offspring development and survival. It is taxonomically widespread and is central to the maintenance of biodiversity through its close association with other phenomena such as sexual selection, life-history evolution, sex allocation, sociality, cooperation and conflict, growth and development, genetic architecture, and phenotypic plasticity. This novel book provides a fresh perspective on the study of the evolution of parental care based on contributions from some of the top researchers in the field. It provides evidence that the dynamic nature of family interactions, and particularly the potential for co-evolution among family members, has contributed to the great diversity of forms of parental care and life-histories across as well as within taxa. The Evolution of Parental Care aims to stimulate students and researchers alike to pursue exciting new directions in this fascinating and important area of behavioural and evolutionary biology. It will be of relevance and use to those working in the fields of animal behaviour, ecology, evolution, and genetics, as well as related disciplines such as psychology and sociology. Readership: Suitable for researchers and students working in the fields of animal behaviour, ecology, evolution, and genetics, as well as related disciplines such as psychology and sociology.