Differences in sibling cooperation in presence and absence of parental care in a genus with interspecific variation in offspring dependence.

Autor: Prang MA; Department of Evolutionary Animal Ecology, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, DE-95440, Germany., Zywucki L; Department of Evolutionary Animal Ecology, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, DE-95440, Germany., Körner M; Department of Evolutionary Animal Ecology, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, DE-95440, Germany., Steiger S; Department of Evolutionary Animal Ecology, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, DE-95440, Germany.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Evolution; international journal of organic evolution [Evolution] 2022 Feb; Vol. 76 (2), pp. 320-331. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Jan 03.
DOI: 10.1111/evo.14414
Abstrakt: The widely spread evolutionary strategy of parental care is considered an important driver of social evolution. Although offspring were long thought to primarily interact competitively, recent studies revealed the potential importance of sibling cooperation. Theories suggest that the degree of cooperation in offspring interactions depends on the degree of offspring dependence on parental care: offspring unable to forage on their own should compete more, whereas more independent juveniles may increase the degree of cooperation. In this study, we tested the occurrence of sibling cooperation in the absence of posthatching care in several burying beetle species exhibiting varying degrees of offspring dependence. To this end, we measured larval growth rate and survival in the presence and absence of prehatching care using different brood sizes. We found that sibling cooperation cannot be exclusively explained by offspring dependence on parental care. Although only species with more independent larvae cooperated when receiving prehatching care, larval cooperation occurred across species in the absence of care. The latter result suggests that sibling cooperation was already present in an early ancestor of the genus Nicrophorus. Overall, these findings give important insights into the transition from facultative to obligate family life.
(© 2021 The Authors. Evolution © 2021 The Society for the Study of Evolution.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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