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Problems of ontogeny and phylogeny in brain-size evolution

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Abstract

Fundamental ambiguities in the interpretation of brain/body allometric trends can only be resolved by analyzing relationships between ontogenetic brain/body growth processes in different groups. The ambiguous concept of adult encephalization confuses at least three distinct types of transformation of a common mammalian growth curve: scalar magnification, total curve didplacement, and changes in proportions of the pre- and postnatal phases of the curve. The conservative ratio between pre- and postnatal growth phases determines the apparent linearity of comparative brain/body allometry and can be explained by assuming that embyological neurogenetic processes ultimately determine both target brain and body size—the first directly and the second indirectly via neurohormonal regulation of somatic growth. Uneven taxonomic distribution of different ontogenetic growth patterns may explain many differences in the allometric trends at different taxonomic levels of analysis. The human brain grows exactly as if it was in a giant ape body; however, because of decoupled growth in different brain regions, it regulates body growth as though it were the size of a chimpanzee brain. Human encephalization exhibits an ontogenetic transformation not found in other mammalian groups.

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  1. Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, 02138, Cambridge, Massachusetts

    Terrence W. Deacon

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Deacon, T.W. Problems of ontogeny and phylogeny in brain-size evolution. International Journal of Primatology 11, 237–282 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02192870

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