Pitnick Scott, Jones Kate E, Wilkinson Gerald S
Department of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244-1270, USA.
Proc Biol Sci. 2006 Mar 22;273(1587):719-24. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2005.3367.
The contribution of sexual selection to brain evolution has been little investigated. Through comparative analyses of bats, we show that multiple mating by males, in the absence of multiple mating by females, has no evolutionary impact on relative brain dimension. In contrast, bat species with promiscuous females have relatively smaller brains than do species with females exhibiting mate fidelity. This pattern may be a consequence of the demonstrated negative evolutionary relationship between investment in testes and investment in brains, both metabolically expensive tissues. These results have implications for understanding the correlated evolution of brains, behaviour and extravagant sexually selected traits.
性选择对大脑进化的贡献鲜有研究。通过对蝙蝠的比较分析，我们发现，在雌性不存在多次交配的情况下，雄性的多次交配对相对脑容量没有进化影响。相比之下，雌性滥交的蝙蝠物种的大脑相对小于雌性表现出配偶忠诚度的物种。这种模式可能是睾丸投资与大脑投资之间已证明的负进化关系的结果，睾丸和大脑都是代谢成本高昂的组织。这些结果对于理解大脑、行为和奢华的性选择特征的协同进化具有启示意义。
