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Exceptionally Steep Brain-Body Evolutionary Allometry Underlies the Unique Encephalization of Osteoglossiformes

Tsuboi, Masahito LU (2021) In Brain, Behavior and Evolution 96(2). p.49-63
Abstract

Brain-body static allometry, which is the relationship between brain size and body size within species, is thought to reflect developmental and genetic constraints. Existing evidence suggests that the evolution of large brain size without accompanying changes in body size (that is, encephalization) may occur when this constraint is relaxed. Teleost fish species are generally characterized by having close-fitting brain-body static allometries, leading to strong allometric constraints and small relative brain sizes. However, one order of teleost, Osteoglossiformes, underwent extreme encephalization, and its mechanistic bases are unknown. Here, I used a dataset and phylogeny encompassing 859 teleost species to demonstrate that the... (More)

Brain-body static allometry, which is the relationship between brain size and body size within species, is thought to reflect developmental and genetic constraints. Existing evidence suggests that the evolution of large brain size without accompanying changes in body size (that is, encephalization) may occur when this constraint is relaxed. Teleost fish species are generally characterized by having close-fitting brain-body static allometries, leading to strong allometric constraints and small relative brain sizes. However, one order of teleost, Osteoglossiformes, underwent extreme encephalization, and its mechanistic bases are unknown. Here, I used a dataset and phylogeny encompassing 859 teleost species to demonstrate that the encephalization of Osteoglossiformes occurred through an increase in the slope of evolutionary (among-species) brain-body allometry. The slope is virtually isometric (1.03 ± 0.09 SE), making it one of the steepest evolutionary brain-body allometric slopes reported to date, and it deviates significantly from the evolutionary brain-body allometric slopes of other clades of teleost. Examination of the relationship between static allometric parameters (intercepts and slopes) and evolutionary allometry revealed that the dramatic steepening of the evolutionary allometric slope in Osteoglossiformes was a combined result of evolution in the slopes and intercepts of static allometry. These results suggest that the evolution of static allometry, which likely has been driven by evolutionary changes in the rate and timing of brain development, has facilitated the unique encephalization of Osteoglossiformes.

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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Evolutionary allometry, Evolutionary constraints, Measurement error model, Mormyrid, Static allometry
in
Brain, Behavior and Evolution
volume
96
issue
2
pages
49 - 63
publisher
Karger
external identifiers
  • scopus:85117510959
  • pmid:34634787
ISSN
0006-8977
DOI
10.1159/000519067
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © 2021
id
3f1f8c85-36b3-497c-9a6a-d760ffb5a5ba
date added to LUP
2021-11-18 11:46:41
date last changed
2024-04-06 13:15:24
@article{3f1f8c85-36b3-497c-9a6a-d760ffb5a5ba,
  abstract     = {{<p>Brain-body static allometry, which is the relationship between brain size and body size within species, is thought to reflect developmental and genetic constraints. Existing evidence suggests that the evolution of large brain size without accompanying changes in body size (that is, encephalization) may occur when this constraint is relaxed. Teleost fish species are generally characterized by having close-fitting brain-body static allometries, leading to strong allometric constraints and small relative brain sizes. However, one order of teleost, Osteoglossiformes, underwent extreme encephalization, and its mechanistic bases are unknown. Here, I used a dataset and phylogeny encompassing 859 teleost species to demonstrate that the encephalization of Osteoglossiformes occurred through an increase in the slope of evolutionary (among-species) brain-body allometry. The slope is virtually isometric (1.03 ± 0.09 SE), making it one of the steepest evolutionary brain-body allometric slopes reported to date, and it deviates significantly from the evolutionary brain-body allometric slopes of other clades of teleost. Examination of the relationship between static allometric parameters (intercepts and slopes) and evolutionary allometry revealed that the dramatic steepening of the evolutionary allometric slope in Osteoglossiformes was a combined result of evolution in the slopes and intercepts of static allometry. These results suggest that the evolution of static allometry, which likely has been driven by evolutionary changes in the rate and timing of brain development, has facilitated the unique encephalization of Osteoglossiformes.</p>}},
  author       = {{Tsuboi, Masahito}},
  issn         = {{0006-8977}},
  keywords     = {{Evolutionary allometry; Evolutionary constraints; Measurement error model; Mormyrid; Static allometry}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{49--63}},
  publisher    = {{Karger}},
  series       = {{Brain, Behavior and Evolution}},
  title        = {{Exceptionally Steep Brain-Body Evolutionary Allometry Underlies the Unique Encephalization of Osteoglossiformes}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1159/000519067}},
  doi          = {{10.1159/000519067}},
  volume       = {{96}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}