Neglected baby beetles evolve greater self-reliance
Friday, September 28, 2018 - 08:30
in Biology & Nature
Zoologists exposed hundreds of burying beetles to two levels of parental care, for 13 generations. The researchers found that when parents fed meat to their babies' mouth-to-mouth, the larvae evolved relatively smaller mandibles. By contrast, when the parents were removed from their young and larvae were forced to self-feed, the larvae evolved significantly larger jaws to compensate for the lack of help.