How Fish Adapted to Carry Eggs in Their Mouths

Mouthbrooding fish hold their eggs and young in their mouth for an extended period of time. This unique form of parental care in fish has evolved independently in at least nine families, including cardinalfish, cichlids, and jawfish... but how did this behaviour evolve?

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References:
Goodwin NB, et al. Evolutionary transitions in parental care in cichlid fish. Proc Biol Sci. 1998;265(1412):2265.
Weller H, et al. Relaxed Feeding Constraints Facilitate the Evolutionof Mouthbrooding in Neotropical Cichlids. Am Nat. 2022; doi: 10.1086/719235.
Balshine-Earn S and Earn DJD. On the evolutionary pathway of parental care in mouth-brooding cichlid fishes. Proc Biol Sci 1998;265:2217.
Rüber L, et al. Evolution of mouthbrooding and life-history correlates in the fighting fish genus Betta. Evolution 2004;58:799–813.
Hoey AS, et al. To feed or to breed: morphological constraints of mouthbrooding in coral reef cardinalfishes. Proc Biol Sci 2012;279:2426–2432.
Ostlund-Nilsson S and Nilsson GE. Breathing with a mouth full of eggs: respiratory consequences of mouthbrooding in cardinalfish. Proc Biol Sci 2004;271:1015–1022.
Okuda N & Takeyama T. Age-specific filial cannibalism in a paternal mouthbrooding fish. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 1997;41:363–369.
Cunha-Saraiva F, et al. From cannibal to caregiver: tracking the transition in a cichlid fish. Anim Behav 2018;139:9–17.

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There Was A Time by Scott Buckley
Beautiful Oblivion by Scott Buckley
Sanctuary by Scott Buckley

Credit:
liquidguru. https://vimeo.com/42486100

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