A major question in evolutionary biology is whether species’ traits can affect how often they form new species.
A study published today in the scientific journal Evolution shows that brain size could play such a role in birds. A team of scientists from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden and CREAF-CSIC in Barcelona, Spain, compared the brain size of hundreds of species around the world. They found that groups of birds with larger brains divide into new species more often than those with smaller brains.
Physical characteristics and how species use them are important in understanding how new species come to be. New species can arise by processes that are unrelated to chance or their environment, according to this study.
“Evolution and speciation is not only a matter of being at the right place at the right time, but also about having some characteristics that allow species to diversify” says University of Gothenburg and Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre researcher Ferran Sayol, who led the study.
Continue reading at University of Gothenburg
Image via University of Gothenburg
