On Mar 14, 2010, at 10:52 PM, John Bois wrote:
In any case, the trend in amniotes seems to be toward the evolution of more not less parental investment in offspring--or, should I say, investment in fewer high quality babies. This makes nest-guarding more of an imperative.
Is there any test to demonstrate that this is the case? Casual observation suggests that the only places where this trend might be robust is in a few clades of mammals. Even then, it's just casual observation - rigorous testing might very find that these trends are not significant. In fact, I hypothesize that many lineages of amniotes, if tested rigorously, will show exactly the opposite trend.
Cheers, --Mike H. Michael Habib Assistant Professor of Biology Chatham University Woodland Road, Pittsburgh PA 15232 Buhl Hall, Room 226A mhabib@chatham.edu (443) 280-0181