A Long Childhood May Be How Crows and Jays Evolved Their Smarts
Like humans, some of the smartest birds enjoy extended periods of parental care
A big brain is useless without the protection and education provided by an extended, nurturing parental presence, according to a new study comparing the lengthy childhoods of humans and certain brainy birds.
The average adult human’s brain accounts for about two percent of their body weight, but consumes 20 percent of the calories burned by its owner. In childhood the brain’s caloric demands are even greater, peaking at 43 percent of kids’ daily energy requirements.
“Brains are weird adaptations—they come empty and are very costly,” Michael Griesser, an evolutionary biologist from the University of Konstanz and co-author of the new research, tells Natalie Parletta of Cosmos. “So it takes individuals a lot of time to make this adaptation worthwhile.”
Studies of people and primates suggest that extended parenting is key to making the brain’s metabolic costs worthwhile and thus to the evolution of smarts more broadly, the researchers write. To paint a fuller picture of the role extended parenting plays in helping offspring survive and in the evolution of greater and more varied cognitive abilities the researchers looked to a more distant branch of the evolutionary tree: birds.
Corvid birds—a group including crows, ravens and jays—are noted brainiacs of the avian world and also spend extra time rearing their young. To systematically study where corvids’ stand relative to their feathered brethren, the researchers compiled a database of the life histories of thousands of bird species, including 127 corvids, reports Amanda Heidt for Science.
More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/long-childhood-may-be-how-these-birds-got-so-smart-180975065/
