Marsupial Cognition

Todorov, Orlin S.

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_1167-1

Cited by 2 publications

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“…Reproductive or developmental traits that might be associated with both socio-ecological behavioural variables and relative brain size are therefore minimized to lactation traits (mainly duration) and litter size [19,36,37]. Despite this, marsupials exhibit a diverse array of social and mating systems, diet types, home ranges and cognitive abilities compared to placentals [38], and are distributed in habitats with various levels of seasonality (New Guinea, Australia and the Americas). Moreover, aside from the lack of a corpus callosum, marsupial brains do not appear to differ from those of placentals in its cell-level or macromorphological organization [39,40].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing hypotheses of marsupial brain size variation using phylogenetic multiple imputations and a Bayesian comparative framework

et al. 2021

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Considerable controversy exists about which hypotheses and variables best explain mammalian brain size variation. We use a new, high-coverage dataset of marsupial brain and body sizes, and the first phylogenetically imputed full datasets of 16 predictor variables, to model the prevalent hypotheses explaining brain size evolution using phylogenetically corrected Bayesian generalized linear mixed-effects modelling. Despite this comprehensive analysis, litter size emerges as the only significant predictor. Marsupials differ from the more frequently studied placentals in displaying a much lower diversity of reproductive traits, which are known to interact extensively with many behavioural and ecological predictors of brain size. Our results therefore suggest that studies of relative brain size evolution in placental mammals may require targeted co-analysis or adjustment of reproductive parameters like litter size, weaning age or gestation length. This supports suggestions that significant associations between behavioural or ecological variables with relative brain size may be due to a confounding influence of the extensive reproductive diversity of placental mammals.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing hypotheses of marsupial brain size variation using phylogenetic multiple imputations and a Bayesian comparative framework

et al. 2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Reproductive or developmental traits that might be associated with both socio-ecological behavioural variables and relative brain size are therefore minimized to lactation traits (mainly duration) and litter size [20, 34, 35]. Despite this, marsupials exhibit a diverse array of social and mating systems, diet types, home ranges, and cognitive abilities compared to placentals [38], and are distributed in habitats with various levels of seasonality (New Guinea, Australia and the Americas). Moreover, aside from the lack of a corpus callosum, marsupial brains do not appear to differ from those of placentals in its cell-level or macromorphological organisation [39, 40].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing hypotheses of marsupial brain size variation using phylogenetic multiple imputations and a Bayesian comparative framework

Todorov

Blomberg

Goswami

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Considerable controversy exists about which hypotheses and variables best explain mammalian brain size variation. We use a new, high-coverage dataset of marsupial brain and body sizes, and the first phylogenetically imputed full datasets of 16 predictor variables, to model the prevalent hypotheses explaining brain size evolution using phylogenetically corrected Bayesian generalised linear mixed-effects modelling. Despite this comprehensive analysis, litter size emerges as the only significant predictor. Marsupials differ from the more frequently studied placentals in displaying much lower diversity of reproductive traits, which are known to interact extensively with many behavioural and ecological predictors of brain size. Our results therefore suggest that studies of relative brain size evolution in placental mammals may require targeted co-analysis or adjustment of reproductive parameters like litter size, weaning age, or gestation length. This supports suggestions that significant associations between behavioural or ecological variables with relative brain size may be due to a confounding influence of the extensive reproductive diversity of placental mammals.

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Marsupial Cognition

Cited by 2 publications

References 29 publications

Testing hypotheses of marsupial brain size variation using phylogenetic multiple imputations and a Bayesian comparative framework

Testing hypotheses of marsupial brain size variation using phylogenetic multiple imputations and a Bayesian comparative framework

Testing hypotheses of marsupial brain size variation using phylogenetic multiple imputations and a Bayesian comparative framework

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