The expensive brain and brain size evolution

carel van schaik

Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour, Konstanz, Germany

University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

vschaik@aim.uzh.ch

Link to seminar: https://umontpellier-fr.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_tMUicQrNT4GxuM0bi0TItQ

Vertebrate brains vary dramatically in size, and this variation is often ascribed to variation in cognitive demands. Here, we ask whether the unusually high costs of brains have acted as constraints on brain size evolution. We confirm that mammal brains are smaller when animals face periods of reduced net food intake, but also show that brain size coevolved with greater pre- or post-hatching provisioning in both endothermic and ectothermic vertebrates. We conclude that the evolution of large brains was enabled by the removal of constraint on egg size or post-hatching or post-natal parental provisioning, linked to the evolution of hard-shelled eggs and of endothermy.

Watch previous seminars on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrX4IsZ8WIFcDa0ZmC7rcQg