Terrestrial reproduction and parental care drive rapid evolution in the trade-off between offspring size and number across amphibians

Safety leads to fewer, bigger offspring

30 September 2022

More favourable conditions for raising young give rise to amphibians having larger offspring but smaller broods.

It has been long been known that a trade-off exists between producing many, small offspring and having a few, large offspring.

Amphibians are highly suitable for investigating this relationship because different species lay eggs in aquatic environments and on land. Laying eggs on land is thought to be safer as there are fewer predators.

Now, by studying data from 800 species of amphibians, a researcher from Queen’s University Belfast in the United Kingdom and two collaborators have shown that amphibian species that lay eggs on land tend to have larger offspring and smaller broods.

They also found that parental care plays a more nuanced role in this relationship than previously recognized.

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References

1. PLOS Biology 20, e3001495 (2022). doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001495