Offspring Development Conditioning (ODC): A Universal Trend in Evolution of Higher Organisms’ Reproduction

Offspring Development Conditioning (ODC): A Universal Trend in Evolution of Higher Organisms’ Reproduction | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research article Offspring Development Conditioning (ODC): A Universal Trend in Evolution of Higher Organisms’ Reproduction Qiang Fu, Jianni Liu, Xin Wang This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-36696/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract All organisms evolve, according to Darwin. The question is how? Is there any general pattern or trend in the organisms’ evolution? These are rarely asked – and almost never answered – questions. This situation makes the evolution frustrating and mysterious to many. Here, after surveying the reproductive modes in most animals and plants, we propose that all (at least most) of higher organisms demonstrate the similar trend underlying their reproductive evolution, namely, Offspring Development Conditioning (ODC). Such a pattern makes the origin and evolution of reproductive organs in both animals and plants rational and understandable. To the best of our knowledge, this pattern appears universal, although we encourage future authors to identify exceptions. We hope this will help frame the evolution of higher animals and plants, and make the latter understandable to the public. Evolutionary Biology reproduction evolution oviparity ovoviviparity viviparity animals plants angiosperms Offspring Development Conditioning Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Full Text Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-36696","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":703633,"identity":"40201b1c-3e91-4642-a738-d358a9ac89e1","order_by":0,"name":"Qiang Fu","email":"","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6948-3747","institution":"Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology Chinese Academy of Sciences","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Qiang","middleName":"","lastName":"Fu","suffix":""},{"id":703634,"identity":"8f475883-923a-403d-b98c-dda207556eaf","order_by":1,"name":"Jianni Liu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Northwest University","correspondingAuthor":false,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jianni","middleName":"","lastName":"Liu","suffix":""},{"id":703635,"identity":"b32d863f-b988-4430-9276-14dc19f49080","order_by":2,"name":"Xin Wang","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA4klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDACZgglB2MQr8WYBC1QkNhAtFKD47zHJH7uqE3fzs5+7cGPPwzy/A3Mzx7g0yLZzJcm2XvmeO7OZp5yw942BsMZB9jMDfBp4WfmMbvB23Ysd8NhnjQJ3gYGxg0MPGwS+LSwAbXc/Nt2LN0AqEXyzx8Ge4JaQLbc5m2rSTA4zH5MmoeNIZGgFslmHvPfsm0HDIEOYzeWbZNInnGYzQyvFoPzZ4wN37bVyRucP/7s4Zs/Nrb97c3P8GqBgsNAzGMGJCQYiI3TOiBmf0ac2lEwCkbBKBhxAAAKOUEOi5mPbAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"","correspondingAuthor":true,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xin","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2020-06-19 22:04:19","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-36696/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-36696/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":1391844,"identity":"20f57a5a-32ba-4921-b26b-61f81108040c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2020-06-22 19:43:05","extension":"png","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":316091,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Reproductive modes and phylogenetic dendrogram in Vertebrates","description":"","filename":"1.PNG","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-36696/v1/1.PNG"},{"id":1391845,"identity":"91658a95-3368-4530-9a0e-8b66611eda55","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2020-06-22 19:43:05","extension":"png","order_by":2,"title":"Figure 2","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":226152,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Diversified reproductive modes in vertebrates. a. Ovulipary in fishes. b. Ovipary in frogs. c.\nOvipary in reptiles. d. Vivipary in mammals (human beings).","description":"","filename":"2.PNG","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-36696/v1/2.PNG"},{"id":1391846,"identity":"152bdce4-1a7e-4fdd-83f8-c4c1516eacc1","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2020-06-22 19:43:05","extension":"png","order_by":3,"title":"Figure 3","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":626459,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Ovule-carrying and ovovivipary. a. Extant shrimp carrying ovules on its body surface. The inset\nshows the ovules on the appendages. b. Kunmingella (the Early Cambrian) carrying ovules on its\nappendages. c. Ovoviviparous marine reptile Keichousaurus with multiple youngs in its abdominal cavity.\nInset shows detailed view of youngs inside mother’s body (Rerpoduced from The Triassic Park with\ncourtesy and permission from Pang Guangfan, Jin Renyi and Fu Xiaoping).","description":"","filename":"3.PNG","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-36696/v1/3.PNG"},{"id":1391847,"identity":"960396e1-6498-4400-beb0-e8e0ea4d70e0","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2020-06-22 19:43:05","extension":"png","order_by":4,"title":"Figure 4","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":67702,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"Diverse reproductive modes in vascular plants. a. Spores dispersed from a sporangium in a spore\nplant. b. Ovule with protection from the integument. c. Ovules/seeds protected by cupule in Caytonia. d.\nA basal ovule protected by ovary in an angiosperm. e. A Physalis fruit with seeds inside and a protective\nlayer around. f. Ovules protected by an inferior ovary in an angiosperm. g. Fruits inside and protected by\nhypanthodium. h. Sprout of Rhizophora on its mother plant. i. Proactive self-fertilization in\nHolcoglossum (Orchidaceae).","description":"","filename":"4.PNG","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-36696/v1/4.PNG"},{"id":1391849,"identity":"2053c804-f7db-404c-9604-eeb3155cbb32","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2020-06-22 19:43:08","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1458491,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"MS0620.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-36696/v1_stamped.pdf"},{"id":1391848,"identity":"7aceb8cc-8901-4c13-a215-8419fdc4b51e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2020-06-22 19:43:05","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1276221,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"MS0620.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-36696/v1/MS0620.pdf"},{"id":1391843,"identity":"0b8c662c-f8f0-493c-944b-9ef28bfae42c","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2020-06-22 19:43:05","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1276221,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"MS0620.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-36696/v1/MS0620.pdf"},{"id":13511418,"identity":"17752c98-4630-49bd-9073-9538103e570f","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2021-09-16 23:51:55","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1293763,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"MS0620.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-36696/v1_covered.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"","formattedTitle":"Offspring Development Conditioning (ODC): A Universal Trend in Evolution of Higher Organisms’ Reproduction","fulltext":[{"header":"Full Text","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis preprint is available for \u003ca href='/article/rs-36696/latest.pdf' target='_blank'\u003edownload as a PDF\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"reproduction, evolution, oviparity, ovoviviparity, viviparity, animals, plants, angiosperms, Offspring Development Conditioning","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-36696/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-36696/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"All organisms evolve, according to Darwin. 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