Liao Wen Bo, Jiang Ying, Li Da Yong, Jin Long, Zhong Mao Jun, Qi Yin, Lüpold Stefan, Kotrschal Alexander
Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation (Ministry of Education), China West Normal University, Nanchong, Sichuan, China.
Key Laboratory of Artificial Propagation and Utilization in Anurans of Nanchong City, China West Normal University, Nanchong, Sichuan, China.
Sci Adv. 2022 Aug 19;8(33):eabq1878. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abq1878. Epub 2022 Aug 17.
While crypsis is a prominent antipredator adaptation, the role of the brain in predator-driven evolution remains controversial. Resolving this controversy requires contextualizing the brain with established antipredator traits and predation pressure. We hypothesize that the reduced predation risk through crypsis relaxes predation-driven selection on the brain and provide comparative evidence across 102 Chinese frog species for our hypothesis. Specifically, our phylogenetic path analysis reveals an indirect relationship between predation risk and crypsis that is mediated by brain size. This result suggests that at a low predation risk, frogs can afford to be conspicuous and use their large brain for cognitive predator evasion. This strategy may become less efficient or energetically costlier under higher predation pressure, favoring smaller brains and instead increasing crypsis.
虽然拟态是一种显著的反捕食适应，但大脑在捕食者驱动的进化中的作用仍存在争议。解决这一争议需要将大脑与既定的反捕食特征和捕食压力相结合。我们假设，通过拟态降低捕食风险会减轻捕食驱动的对大脑的选择，并为我们的假设提供了102种中国蛙类的比较证据。具体而言，我们的系统发育路径分析揭示了捕食风险与拟态之间的间接关系，这种关系由大脑大小介导。这一结果表明，在低捕食风险下，青蛙可以选择显眼，并利用它们的大脑进行认知性的捕食者躲避。在更高的捕食压力下，这种策略可能会变得效率更低或能量成本更高，从而有利于较小的大脑，并增加拟态行为。
