Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Jiang, Ao
• Zhong, Mao Jun
• Xie, Min
• Lou, Shang Ling
• Jin, Long
• Robert, Jehle
• Liao, Wen Bo

Titel

Seasonality and Age is Positively Related to Brain Size in Andrew’s Toad (Bufo andrewsi)

Ist Teil von

• Evolutionary biology, 2015-09, Vol.42 (3), p.339-348

Ort / Verlag

New York: Springer US

Erscheinungsjahr

2015

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The Expensive Brain Framework (EBF) and the Cognitive Buffer Hypothesis are commonly used to explain inter- and intraspecific variation in brain size and brain architecture. Using Andrew’s toad ( Bufo andrewsi ) as a model species, we investigated whether brain attributes in amphibians are shaped by the interplay between age and the length of the activity season as determined by altitude and latitude. We found significant differences in absolute and relative brain volume across 12 populations. Supporting the EBF, we observed a positive correlation between absolute and relative brain volume with season length. In particular, populations experiencing long seasons were characterized by having relatively large olfactory nerve and optic tecta. Relative, but not absolute, brain volume was also positively correlated with individual age. When accounting for the effects of body size and brain volume, however, the size of different brain structures (olfactory nerve, olfactory bulbs, telencephalon, optic tecta and cerebellum) was independent from age. Taken together, our findings are largely in agreement with the EBF to determine brain size variation in Andrew’s toad.