#i mean technically this can apply to asexual reproduction too— but remember that automatically heightens the mortality aspect

[transingthoseformers]

Fun fact! The helplessness of fresh offspring is usually inversely proportional with parental care in nature. Like how kangaroo joeys are breathing jellybeans, meaning their mothers have to carry them around and nurse them for quite a while. Humans are born like 100% undercooked compared to most placental mammals, so (usually) a lot of instinct is dedicated to these screaming shit machines— so much that certain people will lactate if they hear a baby cry. Lizards and sharks on the other hand, those motherfuckers are born running/swimming, lest they get eaten by mama or otherwise spawn killed. Even toed and odd toed ungulates are somewhat in the middle of this graph, with moderate results in each category. Of course, there is individual variation— ie the longstanding practice of dairy cows lacking on the parental details and my colorful slang for human infants.

Of course, there are other factors at play such as offspring mortality rate, how many offspring are had how often versus the 💙quality of offspring💙, how long does the species typically live, are there weird sex based skews and other outside factors. Though, take this post with a grain of salt (meaning, all of this is pulled out of the research stored up my ass)

It is all a balancing act of getting the most bang for your buck. "How can I put the least amount of resources into getting offspring that is likely to survive?" Biology is a bitch like that.

Why is this relevant to the transformers? Because of mechpreg fics and how they depict sparklings. Cybertronians are naturally a long lived species. Longer lived than quite literally anything on earth. In fics, I have seen sparklings being demonstrated as either Super Squishy baby beans, or practically lethal feral animals. I have also seen fics where it's a very rare occurrence to have a sparkling, and I have seen fics where they quickly have a brood (in fact I'll see fics with multiple pairs of twins or triplets)

This decision will have consequences later on

I think you can see exactly where I am going with this. Now, I could write this off as well fanfiction authors not being biologists and wanting some quick fluff in their stories, but no you get Riot being a devious asshole today. If a fic sways towards sparklings that develop rather quickly / are born frequently / often come in multiples or litters, considering the Cybertronian life cycle, wow does nature expect those sparklings to die via intense predation, low parental instinct, or otherwise unstated factors.