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Fast life‐histories are associated with larger brain size in killifishes
Author(s) -
Sowersby Will,
EckerströmLiedholm Simon,
Kotrschal Alexander,
Näslund Joacim,
Rowiński Piotr,
GonzalezVoyer Alejandro,
Rogell Björn
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.84
H-Index - 199
eISSN - 1558-5646
pISSN - 0014-3820
DOI - 10.1111/evo.14310
Subject(s) - brain size , biology , life history , juvenile , coevolution , life history theory , allometry , pace , evolutionary biology , ecology , zoology , medicine , geodesy , radiology , magnetic resonance imaging , geography
Abstract The high energetic demands associated with the vertebrate brain are proposed to result in a trade‐off between the pace of life‐history and relative brain size. However, because both life‐history and brain size also have a strong relationship with body size, any associations between the pace of life‐history and relative brain size may be confounded by coevolution with body size. Studies on systems where contrasts in the pace of life‐history occur without concordant contrasts in body size could therefore add to our understanding of the potential coevolution between relative brain size and life‐history. Using one such system – 21 species of killifish – we employed a common garden design across two ontogenetic stages to investigate the association between relative brain size and the pace of life‐history. Contrary to predictions, we found that relative brain size was larger in adult fast‐living killifishes, compared to slow‐living species. Although we found no differences in relative brain size between juvenile killifishes. Our results suggest that fast‐ and slow‐living killifishes do not exhibit the predicted trade‐off between brain size and life‐history. Instead, fast and slow‐living killifishes could differ in the ontogenetic timing of somatic versus neural growth or inhabit environments that differ considerably in cognitive demands.