Holly Smith

Jan 28, 2025 | nature.com | Holly Smith

Evolutionary theory predicts that young animals are at odds with their parents: nestlings prefer to stick around for as long as possible to make the most of resources from their parents, whereas adults would rather have their offspring fend for themselves early on to maximize opportunities to reproduce. Writing in Current Biology, Parker et al. describe experiments in shell-dwelling cichlid fish (Lamprologus ocellatus) that challenge this conventional view (A. V. Parker et al. Curr. Biol.