Parental care can influence evolution, beetle experiments show
Researchers studying burying beetles have found that parental care extends beyond feeding to include modifying the developmental environment. This 'niche construction' suggests that parental behavior is a significant driver of evolutionary change.
Why it matters
Understanding how parents shape their offspring's environment provides deeper insight into the evolution of social behavior and developmental biology.
edited by Lisa Lock , reviewed by Robert Egan
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Add as preferred source Burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides. Credit: Snuupo/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 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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