Synonyms
Definition
Biparental care is the situation whereby male and female parents share responsibility for raising their mutual offspring.
Introduction
Across the animal kingdom, patterns of parental care vary from no care through uniparental female or male care to biparental care where both parents invest in the offspring. Among the vertebrates, biparental care is highest in avian species where it is estimated to be the case for 81% of species (Cockburn 2006) and lowest in mammals where estimates are below 10% (Kleiman 1977). This observed variation raises the question as to what are the evolutionary driving forces for the emergence of biparental care.
The Biparental Care Hypothesis and the Evolution of Monogamy
According to the biparental care hypothesis, this pattern of exclusive cooperation in care of mutual offspring evolves when each parent achieves higher reproductive success than either can through polygamy (Wittenberger and Tilson 1980). Hence...
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References
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Workman, L. (2016). Biparental Care. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1910-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1910-1
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