Energetic Costs of Cognitive Abilities: Testing the Expensive Tissue Hypothesis

Konarzewski, Marek; Goncerzewicz, Anna; Knapska, Ewelina; Dzik, Jakub M.; Górkiewicz, Tomasz

doi:10.22541/au.159069206.66900218

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…The emergence of hominin meat-eating is also coeval with the earliest stone tool use 16 , 17 . This has also been used to controversially argue that such a dietary change played a crucial role in early hominin cognitive evolution 8 , 12 , 18 . Behaviorally, meat acquisition strategies have also been controversial because they impact our perception of how complex human behaviors emerged 1 , 19 – 21 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Pleistocene faunivorous hominins were not kleptoparasitic, and this impacted the evolution of human anatomy and socio-ecology

Domı́nguez-Rodrigo

Baquedano

Organista

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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Humans are unique in their diet, physiology and socio-reproductive behavior compared to other primates. They are also unique in the ubiquitous adaptation to all biomes and habitats. From an evolutionary perspective, these trends seem to have started about two million years ago, coinciding with the emergence of encephalization, the reduction of the dental apparatus, the adoption of a fully terrestrial lifestyle, resulting in the emergence of the modern anatomical bauplan, the focalization of certain activities in the landscape, the use of stone tools, and the exit from Africa. It is in this period that clear taphonomic evidence of a switch in diet with respect to Pliocene hominins occurred, with the adoption of carnivory. Until now, the degree of carnivorism in early humans remained controversial. A persistent hypothesis is that hominins acquired meat irregularly (potentially as fallback food) and opportunistically through klepto-foraging. Here, we test this hypothesis and show, in contrast, that the butchery practices of early Pleistocene hominins (unveiled through systematic study of the patterning and intensity of cut marks on their prey) could not have resulted from having frequent secondary access to carcasses. We provide evidence of hominin primary access to animal resources and emphasize the role that meat played in their diets, their ecology and their anatomical evolution, ultimately resulting in the ecologically unrestricted terrestrial adaptation of our species. This has major implications to the evolution of human physiology and potentially for the evolution of the human brain.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early Pleistocene faunivorous hominins were not kleptoparasitic, and this impacted the evolution of human anatomy and socio-ecology

Domı́nguez-Rodrigo

Baquedano

Organista

et al. 2021

Sci Rep

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“…The study of Opsanus tau shows that increased investment in one structure does not necessarily drive a loss of mass in one or more organs (Dornburg et al, 2018). Studies in mice have shown that evolutionary increase in cognitive abilities was initially associated with brain plasticity and fueled by an enlarged gut, which was not traded off for brain size, as the ETH posits (Konarzewski et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relationship between brain size and digestive tract length support the expensive-tissue hypothesis in Feirana quadranus

Song

Liu

et al. 2022

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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The brain is among the most energetically costly organs in the vertebrate body, while the size of the brain varies within species. The expensive-tissue hypothesis (ETH) predicts that increasing the size of another costly organ, such as the gut, should compensate for the cost of a small brain. Here, the ETH was tested by analyzing the relationship between brain size variation and digestive tract length in a Swelled-vented frog (Feirana quadranus). A total of 125 individuals across 10 populations ranging from 586 to 1,702 m a.s.l. from the Qinling-Daba Mountains were sampled. With the increase in altitude, the brain size decreases and the digestive tract length increases. Different brain regions do not change their relative size in a consistent manner. The sizes of telencephalon and cerebellum decrease with the increase in altitude, while the olfactory nerve increases its size at high altitudes. However, the olfactory bulb and optic tectum have no significant relationship with altitude. After controlling for snout-vent length (SVL), a significant negative correlation could be found between brain size and digestive tract length in F. quadranus. Therefore, the intraspecific variation of brain size follows the general patterns of ETH in this species. The results suggest that annual mean temperature and annual precipitation are environmental factors influencing the adaptive evolution of brain size and digestive tract length. This study also suggests that food composition, activity times, and habitat complexity are the potential reasons driving the adaptive evolution of brain size and digestive tract length.

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Energetic Costs of Cognitive Abilities: Testing the Expensive Tissue Hypothesis

Cited by 2 publications

References 16 publications

Early Pleistocene faunivorous hominins were not kleptoparasitic, and this impacted the evolution of human anatomy and socio-ecology

Early Pleistocene faunivorous hominins were not kleptoparasitic, and this impacted the evolution of human anatomy and socio-ecology

Relationship between brain size and digestive tract length support the expensive-tissue hypothesis in Feirana quadranus

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