Comparative analyses are the backbone of evolutionary analysis. However, their record in
producing a consensus has not always been good. This is especially true of attempts to …

How does domestication affect the brain? This question has broad relevance. Domesticated
animals play important roles in human society, and substantial recent work has addressed …

The behavioral origins of Homo sapiens can be traced back to the first material culture
produced by our species in Africa, the Middle Stone Age (MSA). Beyond this broad …

Invertebrate animals are frequently lumped into a single category and denied welfare
protections despite their considerable cognitive, behavioral, and evolutionary diversity …

A longstanding issue in biology is whether the intelligence of animals can be predicted by
absolute or relative brain size. However, progress has been hampered by an insufficient …

Human brain size nearly quadrupled in the six million years since Homo last shared a
common ancestor with chimpanzees, but human brains are thought to have decreased in …

Comparative studies have identified a wide range of behavioural and ecological correlates
of relative brain size, with results differing between taxonomic groups, and even within them …

Studies of eusocial invertebrates regard complex societies as those where there is a clear
division of labour and extensive cooperation between breeders and helpers. In contrast …

Large-scale phylogenetic studies of animal cognition have revealed robust links between
absolute brain volume and species differences in executive function. However, past …

Why some animals have big brains and others do not has intrigued scholars for millennia.
Yet, the taxonomic scope of brain size research is limited to a few mammal lineages. Here …