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Parental care is important for offspring survival and success. Recognition of offspring by parents is critical to ensure parents direct care behaviors at related offspring and minimize energy lost by caring for unrelated young. Offspring recognition of parents prevents possible aggressive interactions between young and unrelated adults and allows offspring to direct begging behaviors toward the correct adult. Despite its importance and widespread nature, much of the current research has focused on a small range of species, particularly mammals and birds. We review the existing literature on the sensory mechanisms of parent-offspring recognition in fishes, amphibians, and reptiles. Within these groups, there is diversity in the presence and strategies for parent-offspring recognition. Future studies should continue to identify these mechanisms, as well as the neural and endocrine underpinnings in non-model organisms to expand our knowledge of this behavior and inform our understanding of the evolution of parent-offspring recognition.

Nitric oxide (NO) produced by the enzyme neuronal nitric oxide synthase serves as an important neurotransmitter in the central nervous system that is involved in reproductive regulation, learning, sensory processing, and other forms of neural plasticity. Here, we map the distribution ofnnos‐expressing cells in the brain and retina of the cichlid fishAstatotilapia burtoniusing in situ hybridization. In the brain,nnos‐expressing cells are found from the olfactory bulbs to the hindbrain, including within specific nuclei involved in decision‐making, sensory processing, neuroendocrine regulation, and the expression of social behaviors. In the retina,nnos‐expressing cells are found in the inner nuclear layer, presumably in amacrine cells. We also used quantitative PCR to test for differences innnosexpression within the eye and olfactory bulbs of males and females of different reproductive states and social statuses. In the eye, males express morennosthan females, and socially dominant males express morennosthan subordinate males, but expression did not differ among female reproductive states. In the olfactory bulbs, dominant males had greaternnosexpression than subordinate males. These results suggest a status‐specific function for NO signaling in the visual and olfactory systems that may be important for sensory perception related to mating or territorial interactions to maintain the social hierarchy. The widespread distribution ofnnos‐expressing cells throughout the cichlid brain is similar to that in other teleosts, with some conserved localization patterns across vertebrates, suggesting diverse functions for this important neurotransmitter system.