I outline how understanding the mechanism of behavioural plasticity is important for
predicting how organisms will respond to rapidly changing and novel environments. I define …

The question as to why primates have evolved unusually large brains has received much
attention, with many alternative proposals all supported by evidence. We review the main …

Identifying which ecological and life history traits influence a species' tolerance to
urbanization is critical to understanding the trajectory of biodiversity in an increasingly …

To explain variation in relative brain size among homoiothermic vertebrates, we propose the
Expensive Brain hypothesis as a unifying explanatory framework. It claims that the costs of a …

Large brains, relative to body size, can confer advantages to individuals in the form of
behavioral flexibility. Such enhanced behavioral flexibility is predicted to carry fitness …

While crypsis is a prominent antipredator adaptation, the role of the brain in predator-driven
evolution remains controversial. Resolving this controversy requires contextualizing the …

Despite many decades of research, the allometric scaling of metabolic rates (MRs) remains
poorly understood. Here, we argue that scaling exponents of these allometries do not …

Across the animal kingdom, we see remarkable variation in brain size. This variation has
even increased over evolutionary time. Traditionally, studies aiming to explain brain size …

Behavioral flexibility is an important adaptive response to changing environments for many
animal species. Such plasticity may also promote the invasion of novel habitats by …

Human evolution has been marked by a striking increase in total brain volume relative to
body size. While a prominent and characteristic feature of this volumetric shift has been the …