Anthropological Institute & Museum

I study brain size evolution from a comparative viewpoint. The human brain is about three times larger than that of our closest living relative, the chimpanzee. Large brains bring many obvious benefits, but are also energetically costly. How do other large-brained animals meet these costs? They could turn over more total energy, or they sometimes skimp other expensive organs, such as guts (PhD project Ana Navarrete). Another possibility would be to save energy in locomotion or reproduction. The latter has been confirmed by a wide-range analysis on mammals and birds. Although relatively large-brained species compensate their reduced annual fertility rate by a prolonged lifespan, their population growth rate under optimum conditions is still relatively low, resulting in an ultimate negative correlation between brain size and demographic viability of a species. On the other hand, energy subsidies during breeding could allow to break that constraint, and we aim to investigate the relationship between cooperative breeding behavioour and brain size evolution. Further, we would like to know how encephalisation is affected by energetic constraints from seasonal food shortages (PhD project Janneke van Woerden).
In our research group, we systematically test predictions on brain size evolution flowing from the energy-cost perspective in order to achieve integration with the currently prevailing benefits-oriented approach. Rigorous comparative studies that cover a broad range of taxa are used to test the validity of a hypothesis as a general principle, rather than it being a special case in primate or hominid evolution.

Research Projects

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• Analysis of locomotion in primates

• Life history and brain size

Publications

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For requests of reprints or pdf versions, please contact author.

Teaching

Bio 209: Comparative analyses in evolutionary biology (each spring term, 6 ECTS points)

This module involves theory and practice of comparative analyses to test specific adaptive hyphotheses, with a focus on brain size, energetics and life history evolution in primates, other mammals and birds.
Students will apply statistical methods to control for phylogenetic relatedness in a project on a current research topic, gaining experience in data handling, general linear models (using JMP), taxonomy and managing of references (using EndNote).