Absolute, not relative brain size correlates with sociality in ground squirrels.

ABSTRACT: The social brain hypothesis (SBH) contends that cognitive demands associated with living in cohesive social groups favour the evolution of large brains. Although the correlation between relative brain size and sociality reported in various groups of birds and mammals provides broad empirical support for this hypothesis, it has never been tested in rodents, the largest mammalian order. Here, we test the predictions of the SBH in the ground squirrels from the tribe Marmotini. These rodents exhibit levels of sociality ranging from solitary and single-family female kin groups to egalitarian polygynous harems but feature similar ecologies and life-history traits. We found little support for the association between increase in sociality and increase in relative brain size. Thus, sociality does n

SUBMITTER: Mateju J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4822454 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature