Parentage certainty drives why females, not males, typically provide parental care

Evidence

Another reason parental care is generally provided by females, rather than males, has to do with the certainty of parentage. For many animal species females retain the eggs inside their bodies until after they are fertilized. A female who cares for these eggs can be certain that they are hers, and not those of another female, so energy and time invested are well spent. Males have no such assurance, for precisely the same reason: if fertilization happens inside females then males run the risk that sperm from a rival male actually fertilizes the offspring. Expending resources for the care of unrelated offspring is not cost-effective. Consequently, because females have invested the most already, and because they generally have higher certainty of genetic parentage than their mates, selection favors the evolution of maternal care of offspring more often than it does paternal care. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 684

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader theme of sexual selection and asymmetry between the sexes that runs through this book on weapon evolution — connects to: Higher female reproductive investment explains why females usually provide offspring care. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 155; Caring parents still hold divergent reproductive interests — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 373; Biological egg structure does not dictate the degree of female parental involvement (+3 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 684

Related

• Higher female reproductive investment explains why females usually provide offspring care. (similarity 0.92)
• Caring parents still hold divergent reproductive interests (similarity 0.83)
• Biological egg structure does not dictate the degree of female parental involvement (similarity 0.83)
• Uncertainty about paternity can destroy a mother’s attachment to her child (similarity 0.82)
• Parental care patterns evolve from fitness advantages to mutants (similarity 0.80)
• In nearly all weaponed species, males carry the weapons, not females. (similarity 0.79)
• Male parental care can invert the direction of sexual selection and weaponry (similarity 0.79)
• Concealed ovulation forces male presence that solidifies paternal bonds (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Higher female reproductive investment explains why females usually provide offspring care. #corroborates (0.82) — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 155