Sol Daniel, Bacher Sven, Reader Simon M, Lefebvre Louis
Centre for Ecological Research and Applied Forestries, Autonomous University of Barcelona, E-08193 Bellaterra, Catalonia, Spain.
Am Nat. 2008 Jul;172 Suppl 1:S63-71. doi: 10.1086/588304.
Large brains, relative to body size, can confer advantages to individuals in the form of behavioral flexibility. Such enhanced behavioral flexibility is predicted to carry fitness benefits to individuals facing novel or altered environmental conditions, a theory known as the brain size-environmental change hypothesis. Here, we provide the first empirical link between brain size and survival in novel environments in mammals, the largest-brained animals on Earth. Using a global database documenting the outcome of more than 400 introduction events, we show that mammal species with larger brains, relative to their body mass, tend to be more successful than species with smaller brains at establishing themselves when introduced to novel environments, when both taxonomic and regional autocorrelations are accounted for. This finding is robust to the effect of other factors known to influence establishment success, including introduction effort and habitat generalism. Our results replicate similar findings in birds, increasing the generality of evidence for the idea that enlarged brains can provide a survival advantage in novel environments.
相对于身体大小而言，较大的大脑能够以行为灵活性的形式赋予个体优势。这种增强的行为灵活性预计会给面临新环境或变化环境条件的个体带来适应性益处，这一理论被称为脑容量-环境变化假说。在此，我们首次提供了地球上脑容量最大的动物——哺乳动物的脑容量与在新环境中生存之间的实证联系。利用一个记录了400多次引入事件结果的全球数据库，我们发现，在考虑分类学和区域自相关性的情况下，相对于体重而言脑容量较大的哺乳动物物种在被引入新环境时，往往比脑容量较小的物种更能成功立足。这一发现对于已知会影响引入成功的其他因素（包括引入努力程度和栖息地通用性）的影响具有稳健性。我们的结果在鸟类中重现了类似的发现，从而增加了大脑增大能在新环境中提供生存优势这一观点的证据普遍性。
