Colibri
January 27, 2013, 12:24am
21
Interestingly enough,tigers have relatively larger brains not only than lions, but also the similarly solo hunting jaguar and leopard.
Although there may be a correlation between brains and sociality in some groups, a recent analysis suggests thatthis does not hold true within the Carnivora as a group.
“Increased brain size may mean different things to different groups, depending on unique evolutionary histories, ecologies, life history attributes etc.,” he said. “That is to say, it might be that seeking simple, one-size-fits-all explanations across all mammals (or all amniotes [animals such as birds, mammals and reptiles that give birth to young inside eggs]) has been the problem all along. Nevertheless, seeking general explanations (and then testing them with all available data), within clades or across groups, is a valuable goal of evolutionary studies.”
all I know is Once Upon A Time I had two cats and the one that was dumb as a box of rocks was very, very happy and the Scary Smart One (seen playing practical jokes!!) was moody and frequently bored or depressed.
Colibri
January 27, 2013, 12:48am
23
Aside from being an anecdote about cats, what does this have to do with the subject of the thread?
Cuteness needs no relevance.
Colibri:
If this is what you had said, I wouldn’t have taken issue with your post. You implied that cat brain size might be inexplicable, rather than exactly what might be expected. While there is no hard and fast link between brain size and carnivory, examining deviations from the correlation can give insight into other evolutionary factors involved (such as sociality).
No disagreement. I wrote… poorly.
Colibri
January 27, 2013, 1:33am
26
In MPSIMS, maybe, but this is GQ.
