Higher female reproductive investment explains why females usually provide offspring care.
Evidence
Females also stand to lose more than males if a breeding attempt fails. Although each sex invests nutrients, energy, and time in producing gametes, the amounts they invest are different. Females spend more than males each time they reproduce and, because of this, the cost of abandoning a brood is much steeper for females than it is for males. As a result, whenever additional offspring care is required, it’s generally the females who provide it. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 155
Categorization
- XREF: This is the classic parental-investment logic (Trivers) that underpins how reproductive competition shapes weapon evolution. — connects to: Parentage certainty drives why females, not males, typically provide parental care — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 684; Caring parents still hold divergent reproductive interests — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 373
Related
- Parentage certainty drives why females, not males, typically provide parental care (similarity 0.92)
- Caring parents still hold divergent reproductive interests (similarity 0.82)
- Weapons evolve only when reproductive benefits exceed costs (similarity 0.81)
- In nearly all weaponed species, males carry the weapons, not females. (similarity 0.80)
- Male parental care can invert the direction of sexual selection and weaponry (similarity 0.79)
- Parental care patterns evolve from fitness advantages to mutants (similarity 0.78)