A recent study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution has revealed that the largest animals do not have proportionally bigger brains, with humans being a notable exception.
Researchers from the University of Reading and Durham University analyzed brain and body sizes from around 1,500 species, shedding light on longstanding controversies about brain size evolution.
Traditionally, larger brains relative to body size are linked to intelligence, sociality, and behavioral complexity.
Humans, in particular, have evolved exceptionally large brains.
However, the study challenges the belief that brain size increases proportionally with body size.
Professor Chris Venditti of the University of Reading explained that scientists have long assumed a linear relationship between brain and body size.
"We now know this is not true.
The relationship between brain and body size is a curve, essentially meaning very large animals have smaller brains than expected.
"Co-author Professor Rob Barton of Durham University added,
"Our results help resolve the puzzling complexity in the brain-body mass relationship.
Our model has a simplicity that means previously elaborate explanations are no longer necessary—relative brain size can be studied using a single underlying model.
"Beyond the OrdinaryThe research found a simple association between brain and body size across mammals, allowing the identification of species that deviate from the norm.
Homo sapiens, for instance, evolved more than 20 times faster than other mammals, resulting in our large brains.
Humans are not alone in bucking this trend, as all mammal groups experienced rapid changes in brain size, both increasing and decreasing.
Bats, for example, reduced their brain size rapidly but then showed slow rates of change, possibly due to the demands of flight.
Three groups—primates, rodents, and carnivores—exhibited the most pronounced changes in brain size, following the "Marsh-Lartet rule" where relative brain size tends to increase over time.
This trend is not universal across all mammals.
Dr. Joanna Baker of the University of Reading noted that the largest animals face constraints preventing brains from becoming too large.
Whether this is due to the high maintenance costs of large brains remains unknown.
This pattern, also observed in birds, suggests a general phenomenon across different animal biology.
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