Neglected patterns of variation in transgenerational plasticity: The importance of different sources of environmental variation differs across ages and sexes in a cyprinid fish

Adaptive transgenerational plasticity (TGP) requires individuals to integrate environmental experience across multiple sources. However, few empirical studies have considered that the relative relevance of certain sources might vary across ontogeny and sexes.
Here, we address this knowledge gap by studying inducible antipredator defenses, one of the most convincing examples of TGP. We assessed individual and combined effects of perceived high predation risk in mothers, fathers, caring males and personal environments on the morphology of juvenile, adult male and adult female cyprinids Pimephales promelas.
Parental rather than personal environmental experience determined morphological defense expression across ages and sexes, likely because parents had a longer sampling period.
In juveniles and adult males, egg-mediated environmental experience outweighed sperm-mediated environmental experience in the induction of body shape differences, likely because eggs can transmit information beyond..., All methods are described in detail in the main manuscript and its supplementary information., , # Neglected patterns of variation in transgenerational plasticity: The importance of different sources of environmental variation differs across ages and sexes in a cyprinid fish

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.1jwstqk2w](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.1jwstqk2w)

This data originates from a laboratory study on *Pimephales promelas*. In a factorial split-clutch design, mothers, fathers, caring parents and/or offspring were raised from hatching onwards under different levels of perceived predation risk (high-risk: conspecific alarm cues or low-risk: a water control). Morphological data of offspring was obtained at two developmental stages: in juveniles after completing larval development (18 days age) and in males and females at the onset of sexual maturity (180 days age). Whenever individuals were scheduled to receive parental care during the egg stage, caring parent behavioral data was additionally collected during the 4-day parental care period. Detailed information on how the data was...