Human Urban Activity Makes Animals Develop Bigger Brains
Brainy Vole Daderot via Wikimedia Commons A study finds urban mammals have significantly larger brains than their rural cousins. Humans aren't just changing the climate, causing earthquakes and you know, generally adapting the world to suit our whims. Human activity might also be driving increased brain size in animals! Woo, evolution! In a study published yesterday, University of Minnesota biologist Emilie Snell-Rood examined a collection of mammal skulls from 10 different species to see how animal brains might be adapting to more urban environments. She found that some species are developing bigger brains in response to human disruption to their environment, both in urban and in rural communities in Minnesota. By Snell-Rood's estimates (using cranial capacity to approximate brain size), urban-dwelling white-footed mice and meadow voles have brains that are 6 percent larger than their rural counterparts. She and her co-author also found an increase in brain size among two...