CZ:Ref:DOI:10.1098/rsbl.2008.0469: Difference between revisions

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imported>Daniel Mietchen
(started)
 
imported>Daniel Mietchen
(some more commentary)
 
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  | last1 = Isler | first1 = K.
  | last1 = Isler | first1 = K.
  | last2 = Van Schaik | first2 = C.P.
  | last2 = Van Schaik | first2 = C.P.
  | year = 2008
  | year = 2009
  | title = Why are there so few smart mammals (but so many smart birds)?
  | title = Why are there so few smart mammals (but so many smart birds)?
  | journal = Biology Letters
  | journal = Biology Letters
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  | url = http://journals.royalsociety.org/content/006p636h41l22473/
  | url = http://journals.royalsociety.org/content/006p636h41l22473/
}}
}}
:Builds on the [[expensive tissue hypothesis]] proposed by [[CZ:Ref:Aiello 1995 The Expensive-Tissue Hypothesis: the Brain and the Digestive System in Human and Primate Evolution|Aiello & Wheeler (1995)]] and provides evidence that the maximum rate of population increase, as defined by [[CZ:Ref:Cole 1954 The Population Consequences of Life History Phenomena|Cole (1954)]], is correlated negatively with [[brain size]] in [[mammal]]s and [[bird]]s, as long as [[parental care]] is not provided (and thus the energetic costs of feeding borne) by the [[mother]]s alone. Predicts that such allomaternal care increases the "maximum viable brain size" in a given [[family (biology)|family]] and that brain size evolution is strongly coupled to [[mass extinction]] events.

Latest revision as of 10:08, 15 January 2009

Isler, K. & C.P. Van Schaik (2009), "Why are there so few smart mammals (but so many smart birds)?", Biology Letters: in press, DOI:10.1098/rsbl.2008.0469 [e]

Builds on the expensive tissue hypothesis proposed by Aiello & Wheeler (1995) and provides evidence that the maximum rate of population increase, as defined by Cole (1954), is correlated negatively with brain size in mammals and birds, as long as parental care is not provided (and thus the energetic costs of feeding borne) by the mothers alone. Predicts that such allomaternal care increases the "maximum viable brain size" in a given family and that brain size evolution is strongly coupled to mass extinction events.