Abstract The parental roles of males and females differ considerably between and within species. By means of individual-based evolutionary simulations, we strive to explain this diversity. We show that the conflict between the sexes creates a sex bias (towards maternal or paternal care), even if the two sexes are initially identical. When including sexual selection, there are two outcomes: either female mate choice and maternal care or no mate choice and paternal care. Interestingly, the care pattern drives sexual selection and not vice versa. Longer-term simulations exhibit rapid switches between alternative parental care patterns, even in constant environments. Hence, the evolutionary lability of sex roles observed in phylogenetic studies is not necessarily caused by external changes. Overall, our findings are in striking contrast to the predictions of mathematical models. We show that the discrepancies are caused by transient within-sex polymorphisms in parental strategies, a factor largely neglected in current sex-role theory.
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