Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/30439
Title: The influence of domestication, insularity and sociality on the tempo and mode of brain size evolution in mammals
Contributor(s): Castiglione, Silvia (author); Serio, Carmela (author); Piccolo, Martina (author); Mondanaro, Alessandro (author); Melchionna, Marina (author); Di Febbraro, Mirko (author); Sansalone, Gabriele (author); Wroe, Stephen  (author)orcid ; Raia, Pasquale (author)
Publication Date: 2021-01
Early Online Version: 2020-11-28
DOI: 10.1093/biolinnean/blaa186
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/30439
Abstract: The ability to develop complex social bonds and an increased capacity for behavioural flexibility in novel environments have both been forwarded as selective forces favouring the evolution of a large brain in mammals. However, large brains are energetically expensive, and in circumstances in which selective pressures are relaxed, e.g. on islands, smaller brains are selected for. Similar reasoning has been offered to explain the reduction of brain size in domestic species relative to their wild relatives. Herein, we assess the effect of domestication, insularity and sociality on brain size evolution at the macroevolutionary scale. Our results are based on analyses of a 426-taxon tree, including both wild species and domestic breeds. We further develop the phylogenetic ridge regression comparative method (RRphylo) to work with discrete variables and compare the rates (tempo) and direction (mode) of brain size evolution among categories within each of three factors (sociality, insularity and domestication). The common assertion that domestication increases the rate of brain size evolution holds true. The same does not apply to insularity. We also find support for the suggested but previously untested hypothesis that species living in medium-sized groups exhibit faster rates of brain size evolution than either solitary or herding taxa.
Publication Type: Journal Article
Source of Publication: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 132(1), p. 221-231
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Place of Publication: United Kingdom
ISSN: 1095-8312
0024-4066
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 040308 Palaeontology (incl. Palynology)
060303 Biological Adaptation
Fields of Research (FoR) 2020: 310999 Zoology not elsewhere classified
370506 Palaeontology (incl. palynology)
310403 Biological adaptation
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 970106 Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2020: 280102 Expanding knowledge in the biological sciences
Peer Reviewed: Yes
HERDC Category Description: C1 Refereed Article in a Scholarly Journal
Appears in Collections:Journal Article
School of Environmental and Rural Science

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