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Reply to: Comparisons of static brain–body allometries across vertebrates must distinguish between indeterminate and determinate growth

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 3, pages 1405–1406 (2019)Cite this article

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The Original Article was published on 23 September 2019

replying to T. Froese & R. Froese Nature Ecology & Evolution https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0984-1 (2019).

In the accompanying piece, Froese and Froese1 challenge our hypothesis2 that the reduction of allometric constraints in birds and mammals may have allowed their dramatic encephalization. Here we contest their claims.

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Fig. 1: Ontogenetic brain–body allometry in eight species of vertebrates and their adult body mass.
Fig. 2: The static allometric slope of 24 species of birds based on tarsus length.

References

  1. Froese, T. & Froese, R. Comparisons of static brain–body allometries across vertebrates must distinguish indeterminate and determinate growth. Nat. Ecol. Evol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0984-1 (2019).

  2. Tsuboi, M. et al. Breakdown of brain–body allometry and the encephalization of birds and mammals. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 2, 1492–1500 (2018).

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Acknowledgements

We thank T. Froese and R. Froese for intiating our discussion.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis and Evogene, Department of Biology, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Masahito Tsuboi, Bjørn Tore Kopperud & Kjetil L. Voje

  2. Department of Zoology/Ethology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Masahito Tsuboi, Wouter van der Bijl, Alexander Kotrschal & Niclas Kolm

  3. Department of Evolutionary Studies of Biosystems, The Graduate University of Advanced Studies, Hayama, Japan

    Masahito Tsuboi

  4. House of Bird Research, Christiansfeld, Denmark

    Johannes Erritzøe

  5. Department of Biology and Marine Biology, UNCW Center for Marine Science, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, NC, USA

    Kara E. Yopak

  6. Oceans Graduate School and the Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia

    Kara E. Yopak & Shaun P. Collin

  7. School of Life Sciences, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia

    Shaun P. Collin

  8. Department of Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada

    Andrew Iwaniuk

Authors
  1. Masahito Tsuboi
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  2. Wouter van der Bijl
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  10. Niclas Kolm
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Contributions

M.T. conceived the idea of the study and wrote the manuscript. All authors provided input to the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Masahito Tsuboi.

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Tsuboi, M., van der Bijl, W., Kopperud, B.T. et al. Reply to: Comparisons of static brain–body allometries across vertebrates must distinguish between indeterminate and determinate growth. Nat Ecol Evol 3, 1405–1406 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0986-z

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