ArticlePloS one2018
Why do placentas evolve? Evidence for a morphological advantage during pregnancy in live-bearing fish.
Article in PloS one, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Impacts of Pregnancy on Cognition and Cell Proliferation in a Live-Bearing Fish (Poeciliopsis gracilis).The European journal of neuroscience · 2026Article
- Reproductive Strategies and Their Relevance to Vertebrate Conservation.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Sexual Selection in Mosquitofish: Differences in the Use of Mating Cues Between Sexes.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Comparative Analysis of Growth Performance, Morphological Development, and Physiological Condition in Three RomanianLife (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Repeated independent origins of the placenta reveal convergent and divergent organ evolution within a single fish family (Poeciliidae).Science advances · 2023Article
- Increased superfetation precedes the evolution of advanced degrees of placentotrophy in viviparous fishes of the family Poeciliidae.Biology letters · 2022Article
- Predation risk shapes the degree of placentation in natural populations of live-bearing fish.Ecology letters · 2020Article
- Superfetation reduces the negative effects of pregnancy on the fast-start escape performance in live-bearing fish.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Coasting in live-bearing fish: the drag penalty of being pregnant.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2019Article
- Maternal size and body condition predict the amount of post-fertilization maternal provisioning in matrotrophic fish.Ecology and evolution · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A live-bearing reproductive strategy can induce large morphological changes in the mother during pregnancy. The evolution of the placenta in swimming animals involves a shift in the timing of maternal provisioning from pre-fertilization (females supply their eggs with sufficient yolk reserves prior to fertilization) to post-fertilization (females provide all nutrients via a placenta during the pregnancy). It has been hypothesised that this shift, associated with the evolution of the placenta, should confer a morphological advantage to the females leading to a more slender body shape during the early stages of pregnancy. We tested this hypothesis by quantifying three-dimensional shape and volume changes during pregnancy and in full-grown virgin controls of two species within the live-bearing fish family Poeciliidae: Poeciliopsis gracilis (non-placental) and Poeciliopsis turneri (placental). We show that P. turneri is more slender than P. gracilis at the beginning of the interbrood interval and in virgins, and that these differences diminish towards the end of pregnancy. This study provides the first evidence for an adaptive morphological advantage of the placenta in live-bearing fish. A similar morphological benefit could drive the evolution of placentas in other live-bearing (swimming) animal lineages.
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