Cucchi T, Neaux D, Féral L, Goussard F, Adriensen H, Elleboudt F, Sansalone G, Schafberg R
Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnements, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle CNRS, Paris UMR 7209, France.
Centre de Recherche en Paléontologie - Paris (CR2P), Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France.
R Soc Open Sci. 2024 Sep 18;11(9):240951. doi: 10.1098/rsos.240951. eCollection 2024 Sep.
Among domestic species, pigs experienced the greatest brain size reduction, but the extent and factors of this reduction remain unclear. Here, we used the brain endocast volume collected from 92 adult skulls of wild, captive, feral and domestic to explore the effects of domestication, feralization and captivity over the brain size variation of this species. We found a constant brain volume increase over 24 months, while body growth slowed down from month 20. We observed an 18% brain size reduction between wild boars and pigs, disagreeing with the 30%-40% reduction previously mentioned. We did not find significant sexual differences in brain volume, refuting the theory of the attenuation of male secondary sexual characteristics through the selection for reduced male aggression. Feralization in Australia led to brain size reduction-probably as an adaptation to food scarcity and drought, refuting the reversal to wild ancestral brain size. Finally, free-born wild boars raised in captivity showed a slight increase in brain size, potentially due to a constant and high-quality food supply as well as new allospecific interactions. These results support the need to further explore the influence of diet, environment and experience on brain size evolution during animal domestication.
在家养物种中，猪的脑容量减小幅度最大，但这种减小的程度和因素仍不清楚。在这里，我们使用从92个野生、圈养、野猪和家猪成年头骨收集的脑腔容积，来探究驯化、野化和圈养对该物种脑容量变化的影响。我们发现，在24个月的时间里脑容量持续增加，而身体生长从第20个月开始放缓。我们观察到野猪和家猪之间脑容量减小了18%，这与之前提到的30%-40%的减小幅度不同。我们没有发现脑容量存在显著的性别差异，这反驳了通过选择降低雄性攻击性来减弱雄性第二性征的理论。澳大利亚的野化导致脑容量减小，可能是为了适应食物短缺和干旱，这反驳了向野生祖先脑容量逆转的观点。最后，圈养的自由出生的野猪脑容量略有增加，这可能是由于持续供应优质食物以及新的种间相互作用。这些结果支持了进一步探究饮食、环境和经验对动物驯化过程中脑容量进化影响的必要性。
