ArticleEcology and evolution2017
Longevity is associated with relative brain size in birds.
Article in Ecology and evolution, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed.
- Heads and tails of individual differences: the role of environmental complexity in cognitive development of juvenile lobsters.Animal cognition · 2026Article
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- When does metacognition evolve in the opt-out paradigm?Animal cognition · 2024Article
- Multi-scaling allometry in human development, mammalian morphology, and tree growth.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Size differences among canaries, goldfinches and allies may explain correlated evolution of song and colour.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Evolution of Avian Eye Size Is Associated with Habitat Openness, Food Type and Brain Size.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Extended parental provisioning and variation in vertebrate brain sizes.PLoS biology · 2023Article
- Parental provisioning drives brain size in birds.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Sex differences in immune gene expression in the brain of a small shorebird.Immunogenetics · 2022Article
- Using relative brain size as predictor variable: Serious pitfalls and solutions.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Large and expensive brain comes with a short lifespan: The relationship between brain size and longevity among fish taxa.Journal of fish biology · 2022Article
- Problems with using comparative analyses of avian brain size to test hypotheses of cognitive evolution.PloS one · 2022Article
- Waterbird solves the string-pull test.Royal Society open science · 2021Article
- Plasma methionine metabolic profile is associated with longevity in mammals.Communications biology · 2021Article
- Article
- Digest: A synergistic approach explains the evolutionary connection between brain size and longevityEvolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2020Article
- Play behaviour, not tool using, relates to brain mass in a sample of birds.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Pollen feeding inProceedings. Biological sciences · 2020Article
- Low abundance of NDUFV2 and NDUFS4 subunits of the hydrophilic complex I domain and VDAC1 predicts mammalian longevity.Redox biology · 2020Article
- Article
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2 authors.
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Abstract
Brain size of vertebrates has long been recognized to evolve in close association with basic life-history traits, including lifespan. According to the cognitive buffer hypothesis, large brains facilitate the construction of behavioral responses against novel socioecological challenges through general cognitive processes, which should reduce mortality and increase lifespan. While the occurrence of brain size-lifespan correlation has been well documented in mammals, much less evidence exists for a robust link between brain size and longevity in birds. The aim of this study was to use phylogenetically controlled comparative approach to test for the relationship between brain size and longevity among 384 avian species from 23 orders. We used maximum lifespan and maximum reproductive lifespan as the measures of longevity and accounted for a set of possible confounding effects, such as allometry, sampling effort, geographic patterns, and life-history components (clutch size, incubation length, and mode of development). We found that both measures of longevity positively correlated with relative (residual) brain size. We also showed that major diversification of brain size preceded diversification of longevity in avian evolution. In contrast to previous findings, the effect of brain size on longevity was consistent across lineages with different development patterns, although the relatively low strength of this correlation could likely be attributed to the ubiquity of allomaternal care associated with the altricial mode of development. Our study indicates that the positive relationship between brain size and longevity in birds may be more general than previously thought.
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