Patterns of parental care in Neotropical glassfrogs: fieldwork alters hypotheses of sex-role evolution

Many animals provide parental care to offspring. Parental sex-roles vary extensively across taxa, and such patterns are considered well documented. However, information on amphibians is lacking relative to other vertebrate groups. We combine natural history observations with functional and historical analyses to examine the evolution of egg care in glassfrogs (Centrolenidae). Parental care was considered rare and predominately provided by males. Our field observations of 40 species revealed that care occurs throughout the family, and the caregiving sex changes across lineages. We discovered that a brief period of maternal care is widespread and occurs in species previously thought to lack care. Using a combination of female-removal experiments, prey-choice tests with egg-eating katydids, and parental disturbance-tolerance assays, we confirm the adaptive benefits of short-term maternal care in wild Cochranella granulosa and Teratohyla pulverata. To examine historical transitions between ...