2024-03-29T15:50:57Zhttp://digital.csic.es/dspace-oai/requestoai:digital.csic.es:10261/1965052021-05-24T10:14:57Zcom_10261_13com_10261_8col_10261_266
Larger brain size indirectly increases vulnerability to extinction in mammals
González-Voyer, Alejandro
González-Suárez, M.
Vilà, Carles
Revilla, Eloy
Body size allometry
extinction risk
IUCN Red List
life‐history traits
phylogenetic path analysis
Although previous studies have addressed the question of why large brains evolved, we have limited understanding of potential beneficial or detrimental effects of enlarged brain size in the face of current threats. Using novel phylogenetic path analysis, we evaluated how brain size directly and indirectly, via its effects on life history and ecology, influences vulnerability to extinction across 474 mammalian species. We found that larger brains, controlling for body size, indirectly increase vulnerability to extinction by extending the gestation period, increasing weaning age, and limiting litter sizes. However, we found no evidence of direct, beneficial, or detrimental effects of brain size on vulnerability to extinction, even when we explicitly considered the different types of threats that lead to vulnerability. Order‐specific analyses revealed qualitatively similar patterns for Carnivora and Artiodactyla. Interestingly, for Primates, we found that larger brain size was directly (and indirectly) associated with increased vulnerability to extinction. Our results indicate that under current conditions, the constraints on life history imposed by large brains outweigh the potential benefits, undermining the resilience of the studied mammals. Contrary to the selective forces that have favored increased brain size throughout evolutionary history, at present, larger brains have become a burden for mammals.
Peer reviewed
2019-12-12T08:32:54Z
2019-12-12T08:32:54Z
2016-06
artículo
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
Evolution 70(6): 1364-1375 (2016)
0014-3820
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/196505
10.1111/evo.12943
1558-5646
en
https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.12943
Sí
none
John Wiley & Sons