Parental care can influence evolution, beetle experiments show

How has offspring dependence on parents evolved over the course of evolution? Researchers at the University of Bayreuth, in collaboration with Kyoto University, Japan, have investigated one possible mechanism by studying the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides. Their new study shows that parents do more than simply provide care for their offspring: They also improve the entire developmental environment in which their young grow up, a factor that may itself have influenced evolutionary change. The findings have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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