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It seems that live bearing is very high cost relative to egg laying. Therefore, I would expect that in a live bearing species the male would always have a post coital role.

Is this the case?

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  • $\begingroup$ Are you claiming that, say, polar bear and tiger fathers help to raise their young? $\endgroup$
    – swbarnes2
    Jul 16, 2021 at 18:39
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    $\begingroup$ Can you clarify your question? The question you're explicitly asking here ("are there mammalian species in which the male makes no contribution after coitus") has clear answers, but in the comments you say that you want to know what advantage live bearing has over egg laying - which is a different question. Can you be more explicit about the steps in your logic and say more precisely what your question is? $\endgroup$
    – Ben Bolker
    Jul 18, 2021 at 1:28
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    $\begingroup$ and, FWIW "sociality" (as in your title) is yet another topic - usually refers to associations of unrelated or distantly related individuals (not parent-offspring or parent-parent interactions) $\endgroup$
    – Ben Bolker
    Jul 18, 2021 at 15:37
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    $\begingroup$ there are two very different questions here, I suggest asking them separately . And a better way to frame your first questions is what allowed eusociality to evolve in mole rats the only vertebrate that is eusocial. its not insects and mammals it is insects and one mammal. Also I suggest you first ask what the benefits of live birth are because there are some pretty solid benefits. $\endgroup$
    – John
    Jul 19, 2021 at 1:09
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    $\begingroup$ I've adapted the question closer to what it originally said plainly and fitting the answer given. Eusociality is really a different thing altogether; I'd recommend asking that as a separate question as others have suggested, perhaps framing it on what you can learn from Ben's answer. Probably worth reading generally about eusociality before asking, too, in order to frame a clear question. "what advantage live bearing has over egg laying" is a third separate question, also only barely related to the others. $\endgroup$
    – Bryan Krause
    Jul 23, 2021 at 17:41

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Narrowly speaking, the answer to your question is "yes, most of them". West and Capellini (2016) analyze a data set comprising 529 mammalian species, of which only 65 have any form of male care of offspring. This figure from their paper shows that it is common in some primates and some carnivores (I haven't zoomed in to see exactly which clades these are), and otherwise rare.

phylogeny of mammals with male parental care indicated by a red dot

West, Hannah E. R., and Isabella Capellini. “Male Care and Life History Traits in Mammals.” Nature Communications 7, no. 1 (June 14, 2016): 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms11854.

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  • $\begingroup$ I'd think it would depend on how you define "care". Is it just male-female pairings, or herd/pack animals, where the male(s) protects the entire group, including young? $\endgroup$
    – jamesqf
    Jul 18, 2021 at 4:03

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