HOW MAMMALS PRODUCE LARGE-BRAINED OFFSPRING

Two explanations for species differences in neonatal brain size in eutherian mammals relate the size of the brain at birth to maternal metabolic rate. Martin (1981, 1983) argued that maternal basal metabolic rate puts an upper bound on the mother's ability to supply energy to the fetus, thereby limiting neonatal brain size. Hofman (1983) proposed that gestation length in mammals is constrained by maternal metabolic rate, implying an indirect constraint on neonatal brain size. Since individuals of precocial species have much larger neonatal brain sizes and are gestated longer for a given maternal body size than individuals of altricial species, Martin's and Hofman's ideas also require that mothers of precocial offspring have higher metabolic rates for their body sizes than mothers of altricial offspring. Data on 116 mammal species from 13 orders show that neither neonatal brain size nor gestation length is correlated with maternal metabolic rate when maternal body-size effects are removed. For a given maternal size, there is no difference in metabolic rates between precocial and altricial species, despite a two-fold difference between them in average neonatal brain size. However, neonatal brain size is strongly correlated with gestation length and litter size, independently of maternal size and metabolic rate. Analyses conducted within orders replicated the findings for gestation length and suggested that neonatal brain size may be at best only weakly related to metabolic rate. Differences in neonatal brain size appear to have evolved primarily with species differences in gestation length and litter size but not with differences in metabolic rate; large-brained offspring are typically produced from litters of one that have been gestated for a long time relative to maternal size. We conclude that species differences in relative neonatal brain size reflect different life-history tactics rather than constraints imposed by metabolic rate.