Pattern in parental care behaviour from lower to higher animals?

Question

I was studying about parental care behavior. There seems a pattern present in this behavior in case of vertebrates. The more evolutionary advanced class the animal belongs to, the greater effort an animal gives to care its off spring? Is it a real pattern? My current thinking is that if the pattern is indeed real, it is because the more complex an animal is, it takes more time to get fit with the environment, so it takes more effort for parents to get them ready for the environment. Am I close?

Answer 1

Pretty much spot on.

There is a thing called biotic potential. It is essentially the ability of a species to continue to the next generation. A high biotic potential means the next generation is pretty much guaranteed with little or no effort.

A fish that drops 50,000 eggs in a single spawn has a higher biotic potential than a human being that has a single egg per cycle. The fish drops its eggs and runs, the human sticks around to raise the offspring.

Time to maturity also factors in. Weeks versus decades, the long-term juvenile would get more care. Parental investment, i.e. gestation, is the same.

The list goes on.

Taxonomy classifies organisms from simple to complex, and it is true that the more complex organisms tend to be found at the top of their respective food pyramids. Which means there are fewer of them, which means they have lower biotic potentials, which means they practice more parental care.