Meeting Abstract

P3.1  Monday, Jan. 6 15:30  Evolution of parental care in fishes CURETON II, J.C.; BROUGHTON, R.E.; KNAPP, R.*; Univ. of Oklahoma; Univ. of Oklahoma; Univ. of Oklahoma rknapp@ou.edu

Relative to other vertebrates, bony fishes exhibit a great diversity of parental care behaviors and associated morphology. The evolution of most of the various modes of parental care is not particularly well understood and deserves more attention in light of recent revisions to our understanding of teleost evolution. We used the new phylogenetic hypothesis and revised classification of bony fishes from the Euteleost Tree of Life project (EToL; Broughton et al. and Betancur-R et al. 2013. PLOS Currents-Tree of Life) to quantify the number of times each mode of parental care has evolved and to identify transitions between paternal and maternal care and parental care types. Parental care is currently known from 95 bony fish families. Transitions between care giver and/or type of care have occurred within at least 24 families. Paternal care and nest guarding are the most frequent modes of parental care, with internal gestation, oral brooding, and external egg carrying also being very common. Similar to earlier studies (e.g., Mank et al. 2005. Evolution), we find that no care seems to be the likely ancestral condition among the bony fishes generally and for the evolution of particular modes of care more specifically. Of the 77 transitions identified in our analyses, only 21 (27%) are transitions between two types of care. The improved resolution of bony fish phylogeny provided by the EToL tree, especially among the Percomorpharia, allows us to explore potential physiological and behavioral factors that allow, or more likely constrain, the evolution of various modes of parental care.