Sex roles and the evolution of parental care specialization.

ABSTRACT: Males and females are defined by the relative size of their gametes (anisogamy), but secondary sexual dimorphism in fertilization, parental investment and mating competition is widespread and often remarkably stable over evolutionary timescales. Recent theory has clarified the causal connections between anisogamy and the most prevalent differences between the sexes, but deviations from these patterns remain poorly understood. Here, we study how sex differences in parental investment and mating competition coevolve with parental care specialization. Parental investment often consists of two or more distinct activities (e.g. provisioning and defence) and parents may care more efficiently by specializing in a subset of these activities. Our model predicts that efficient care specialization br

SUBMITTER: Henshaw JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6732396 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature