Inbreeding results from matings between relatives and often leads to a reduction in the
fitness of inbred offspring, known as inbreeding depression. There is substantial variation in …

Despite an extensive body of theoretical and empirical literature on biparental cooperation, it
is still unclear whether offspring fare equally, better or worse when receiving care by two …

A maternal effect is a causal influence of the maternal phenotype on the offspring phenotype
over and above any direct effects of genes. There is abundant evidence that maternal effects …

Early-life conditions have been shown to have a profound effect on an animal's body size
and fecundity across diverse taxa. However, less is known about how early-life effects on …

Highlights•Inbred males are often lower-quality mates, so females may avoid mating with
them.•We studied female preferences for outbred versus inbred males in a burying …

Parental care has been shown to reduce the magnitude of inbreeding depression in some
species with facultative care. However, parents often vary in the quality or amount of care …

We investigate the effect of offspring and maternal inbreeding on maternal and offspring
traits associated with early offspring fitness in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides …

Inbreeding depression occurs when individuals who are closely related mate and produce
offspring with reduced fitness. Although inbreeding depression is a genetic phenomenon …

Highlights•Burying beetle brood size and resource availability were manipulated.•Both
brood size and resource availability affected sibling competition.•There was also an effect of …

We investigate the evolution of a gene for paternal care, with pleiotropic effects on male
mating fitness and offspring viability, with and without extrapair copulations (EPCs). We …