Parents do not only transfer genes to their offspring, they
also provide them with a wide range of resources. How these
parental (usually maternal) effects will evolve depend on their
effects on both the parental and the offspring generation and
various costs and constraints. Because early experience can
have programming effects on the phenotype (e.g., prenatal hormone
exposure), it is necessary to have a life history perspective
on the evolution of maternal effects. We are therefore in need
of studies addressing lifetime consequences of maternal effects
for both offspring and parents.
