Big brains stabilize populations and facilitate colonization of variable habitats in birds
Big brains stabilize populations and facilitate colonization of variable habitats in birds
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DOI：
10.1038/s41559-017-0316-2
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发表时间：
2017-11-01
影响因子：
16.8
通讯作者：
Botero, Carlos A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Fristoe, Trevor S.;Iwaniuk, Andrew N.;Botero, Carlos A.
认知缓冲假说认为，环境的变异性可能是认知进化的主要驱动力，因为产生灵活行为反应的能力增强有助于应对意外情况。尽管比较证据支持这一假说的不同方面，但认知与在多变和不可预测的环境中生存的能力之间的直接联系尚未得到证实。在这里，我们使用互补的人口统计学和进化分析来表明，在鸟类中，这一假设的机械前提得到了很好的支持，但因果关系的隐含方向却没有得到很好的支持。具体地说，我们表明，尽管相对脑容量较大的鸟类的种群动态更稳定，受环境变化的影响较小，但较大大脑的进化往往早于并促进了可变栖息地的殖民，而不是反过来。我们的发现强调了在解释系统发育相关模式时调查进化事件的时间线的重要性。
The cognitive buffer hypothesis posits that environmental variability can be a major driver of the evolution of cognition because an enhanced ability to produce flexible behavioural responses facilitates coping with the unexpected. Although comparative evidence supports different aspects of this hypothesis, a direct connection between cognition and the ability to survive a variable and unpredictable environment has yet to be demonstrated. Here, we use complementary demographic and evolutionary analyses to show that among birds, the mechanistic premise of this hypothesis is well supported but the implied direction of causality is not. Specifically, we show that although population dynamics are more stable and less affected by environmental variation in birds with larger relative brain sizes, the evolution of larger brains often pre-dated and facilitated the colonization of variable habitats rather than the other way around. Our findings highlight the importance of investigating the timeline of evolutionary events when interpreting patterns of phylogenetic correlation.