Predictable evolution towards larger brains in birds colonizing oceanic islands.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Sayol F
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6068123 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Predictable evolution towards larger brains in birds colonizing oceanic islands.
Sayol Ferran F Downing Philip A PA Iwaniuk Andrew N AN Maspons Joan J Sol Daniel D
Nature communications 20180731 1
Theory and evidence suggest that some selective pressures are more common on islands than in adjacent mainland habitats, leading evolution to follow predictable trends. The existence of predictable evolutionary trends has nonetheless been difficult to demonstrate, mainly because of the challenge of separating in situ evolution from sorting processes derived from colonization events. Here we use brain size measurements of >1900 avian species to reveal the existence of one such trend: increased br ...[more]
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