Parental investment and body temperature explain encephalization in vertebrates.

ABSTRACT: The systematic variation in relative brain size among vertebrate classes remains poorly understood. Here, based on the expensive brain hypothesis, we propose that two broad constraints explain much of the variation: 1) the ability to produce large offspring, and so provide them with the energy required for constructing larger brains, and 2) the ability to sustain continuously high body temperatures, because cooler and varying brain temperatures reduce brain performance and thus fitness. We therefore predicted that encephalization (major evolutionary increases in brain size) only happened where changes in physiology or natural history created these abilities. First, comparative analyses across all major vertebrate classes (n = 2600 species) revealed that protecting or provisioning eggs or e

SUBMITTER: Song Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12625846 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature