Social bonds in birds are associated with brain size and contingent on the correlated evolution of life-history and increased parental investment: AVIAN BRAIN EVOLUTION
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In birds, large brains are associated with a series of population-level phenomena, including invasion success, species richness, and resilience to population decline. Thus, they appear to open up adaptive opportunities through flexibility in foraging and anti-predator behaviour. The evolutionary pathway leading to large brain size has received less attention than behavioural and ecological correlates. Using a comparative approach, we show that, independent of previously recognized associations with developmental constraints, relative brain size in birds is strongly related to biparental care, pair-bonding, and stable social relationships. We also demonstrate correlated evolution between large relative brain size and altricial development, and that the evolution of both traits is contingent on biparental care. Thus, biparental care facilitates altricial development, which permits the evolution of large relative brain size. Finally, we show that large relative brain size is associated with pair-bond strength, itself a likely consequence of cooperation and negotiation between partners under high levels of parental investment. These analyses provide an evolutionary model for the evolution of and prevalence of biparental care, altricial development, and pair-bonding in birds.
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- Authors
- SHULTZ, S., & DUNBAR, R. I. M.
- Affiliations
- British Academy (GB)
- Venue
- Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2010-04-20
- Volume
- 100
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 111-123
- ISSN
- 0024-4066 (ISSN-L)
- 1095-8312
- OpenAlex
- W1898587620
- Cited by
- 151
- References
- 66
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 7.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- Locations
- Biological Journal of the Linnean Society (publishedVersion)
- Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- British Academy
- Royal Society
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Avian ecology and behavior
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Developmental Biology › Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior
- Keywords
- brain size, birds, biparental care, pair bonding, altricial development, parental investment, life history evolution, correlated evolution, social bonds
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Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
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