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- Title
Reduction of brain and sense organs in the fossil insular bovid Myotragus.
- Authors
Köhler, Meike; Moyà-Solà, Salvador
- Abstract
Our study of the fossil rupicaprine bovid Myotragus [Bate, 1909] from the Mediterranean island Majorca (Spain) provides evidence that this animal underwent significant changes (reduction) in the relative size of brain and sense organs after geographic isolation at the end of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (Miocene-Pliocene boundary, 5.2 Mya). The changes in the central nervous system of Myotragus parallel the pattern reported for domesticated animals, in which decrease in relative brain size is accompanied by a decrease in the relative size of their sense organs. We interpret the important size reduction of brain and sense organs in Myotragus as an adaptive strategy for more efficient energy use under the special environmental conditions of the insular ecosystem, characterized by absence of predation and limitation of trophic resources.
- Publication
Brain, behavior and evolution, 2004, Vol 63, Issue 3, p125
- ISSN
0006-8977
- Publication type
Journal Article
- DOI
10.1159/000076239