Parental care and evolutionary change
The Nicrophorus genus is over 10 times more speciose than other genera in the Nicrophorinae. Its member species also exhibit far more elaborate forms of parental care than is seen in the sister genera. Could these two observations be causally related? We are using experimental evolution and selection experiments on N. vespilloides to test whether parental care facilitates evolutionary change.
Publications
Matthew Schrader, Benjamin J. M. Jarrett, Darren Rebar, Rebecca M. Kilner. Adaptation to a novel family environment involves both apparent and cryptic phenotypic changes. Proceedings of the Royal Society B doi: 10.1098/rspb.2017.1295
Benjamin J. M. Jarrett, Matthew Schrader, Darren Rebar, Thomas M. Houslay & Rebecca M. Kilner. Cooperative interactions within the family enhance the capacity for evolutionary change in body size. Nature, ecology and evolution, May 2017. doi: 10.1038/s41559-017-0178
Schrader, M., Crosby, R. M., Hesketh, A. R., Jarrett, B. J. M. and Kilner, R. M. 2015. A limit on the extent to which increased egg size can compensate for a poor postnatal environment revealed experimentally in the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides. Ecology and Evolution. doi: 10.1002/ece3.1876
Schrader, M., Jarrett, B. J. M., & Kilner , R. M. 2015 Using experimental evolution to study adaptations for life within the family. American Naturalist 185: 610-619, doi:10.1086/680500
Schrader, M., B. J. M. Jarrett, and R. M. Kilner. 2015. Parental care masks a density-dependent shift from cooperation to competition in burying beetle broods. Evolution 69: 1077-1084, doi:10.1111/evo.12615
Kilner, R. M., Boncoraglio, G., Henshaw, J. M., Jarrett, B.J.M., de Gasperin, O. & Kokko, H. 2015. Parental effects alter the adaptive value of an adult behavioural trait. eLife doi: 10.7554/eLife.07340
Attisano, A. & Kilner, R. M. 2015. Parental effects and flight behaviour in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides. Animal Behaviour 108: 91-100. doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2015.07.020
Schrader, M., Jarrett, B. J. M., & Kilner , R. M. 2015 Using experimental evolution to study adaptations for life within the family. American Naturalist 185: 610-619, doi:10.1086/680500
Schrader, M., B. J. M. Jarrett, and R. M. Kilner. 2015. Parental care masks a density-dependent shift from cooperation to competition in burying beetle broods. Evolution 69: 1077-1084, doi:10.1111/evo.12615