The evolutionary loss of paternal care is associated with shifts in female life history traits

Parental care can increase the fitness of parents through increased offspring survival but can also reduce reproductive output by limiting time and energy allocated to additional mating opportunities. The evolutionary origin of parental care is often associated with shifts in life history traits (e.g., high investment in few, large offspring, slow offspring growth), but little is known about whether the evolutionary loss of care is associated with reciprocal shifts in the same life history traits. Here, we capitalize on the divergence of parental care between ecotypes of three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) to test for associations between parental care and life history traits. While males from most stickleback populations provide care, an unusual “white” ecotype has recently lost paternal care. We found support for the hypothesis that the evolutionary loss of paternal care is associated with shifts in female life history traits; relative to females of the ecotype with pate..., , , ### Start README

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## Dataset “The evolutionary loss of paternal care is associated with reduced female parental investment ”

*Authors: Colby Behrens (1), Sarah Young (2), Eric Arredondo (1), Anne C. Dalziel (2), Laura K. Weir (2), Alison M. Bell (1,3,4,5)
(1) Department of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior, School of Integrative Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
(2) Department of Biology, St. Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
(3) Program in Ecology, Evolution and Conservation, University of Illinois Urbana?Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA\
(4) Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology, University of Illinois Urbana?Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
(5) Program in Neuroscience, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA

* README contents:
-Associated manuscript
-Study summary
-Software information
-Dataset contents

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## Associated manuscript:

*Title: The evolutionary loss of paternal care is associated with reduced fem...