Evolutionary ecology of pipefish brooding structures: embryo survival and growth do not improve with a pouch.

ABSTRACT: For animals that reproduce in water, many adaptations in life-history traits such as egg size, parental care, and behaviors that relate to embryo oxygenation are still poorly understood. In pipefishes, seahorses and seadragons, males care for the embryos either in some sort of brood pouch, or attached ventrally to the skin on their belly or tail. Typically, egg size is larger in the brood pouch group and it has been suggested that oxygen supplied via the pouch buffers the developing embryos against hypoxia and as such is an adaptation that has facilitated the evolution of larger eggs. Here, using four pipefish species, we tested whether the presence or absence of brood pouch relates to how male behavior, embryo size, and survival are affected by hypoxia, with normoxia as control. Two of ou

SUBMITTER: Braga Goncalves I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4864203 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature