Ecological Drivers and Conservation Implications of Parental Care Diversity in Vertebrates

There are astonishing differences in whether, how, and how long for, animals care for their offspring. In most species, such as many marine fishes, parents abandon their fertilized eggs to their own destiny, which is mostly being eaten by predators. Conversely, in other species parents provide protection and resources to their offspring. While parental care increases offspring survival, it also comes at considerable costs for the parents because resources and time are limited. Once evolved, not only does care affect the fitness of parents and offspring, but it also alters life history strategies, is related to sexual selection and mating system, leads to cooperation and conflict within the family, and promotes the evolution of sociality. Yet, we know very little about when care evolves and its knock-on effects on species reproduction, population dynamics and extinction risk.

This project combines state-of-the-art phylogenetic comparative approaches, datasets of parental care behaviours for hundreds of vertebrate species, and cutting-edge evolutionary modelling, to:
(i) Investigate which ecological conditions promote the evolution of care diversity;
(ii) Unravel whether parental care is the driver or the consequences of changes in reproductive characteristics;
(iii) Evaluate how care diversity influences population trends and extinction risk.