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Article: University of Cambridge reports research in evolution.
- Article from:
- Science Letter
- Article date:
- January 20, 2009
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"Brain size is under many opposing selection pressures. Estimating their relative influence and reconstructing the brain's evolutionary history have, however, proved difficult," scientists writing in the journal Evolution report (see also Evolution).
"Here, we confirm the suggestion that the brain of brood parasitic cuckoos is smaller in relation to their body weight than that of nonparasitic cuckoo species. Two hypotheses explaining reductions in brain size are tested, using phylogenetically controlled correlations and evolutionary pathway analyses. In a novel approach, the pathway models are combined to build the most likely evolutionary sequence of trait ...