Synonyms
Definition
Animal young that are exceptionally helpless for a short period following birth and require extensive parental investment and care.
Introduction
Both avian hatchlings and mammal offspring can be classified based on their developmental state at, and shortly following, birth. Young with limited motor functioning and a heavy reliance on parental care are often described as altricial young. In contrast, offspring that are born relatively independent and well-developed are labeled precocial young. These classifications first appeared in the early 1800s through the works of Carl Jakob Sundevall and Lorenz Oken (Starck and Ricklefs 1998). Since then, these labels have been widely adopted to identify the developmental state of avian and mammal offspring at birth, although recent research suggests that this dichotomous rating may not reflect the full range of development found in some families (Starck and Ricklefs 1998). However, within most avian and mammal...
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References
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Slonecker, E.M. (2017). Altricial. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1962-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1962-1
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