The intelligence of “a man’s best
friend” has evolved at a greater rate than the less social cat over millions of
years, scientists at Oxford University have claimed.
It was often thought that the
feline pet was smarter than its canine counterpart because it needed less
attention but researchers have discovered that cat’s brains are smaller because
they are less social.
For the first time scientists have
charted the evolutionary history of the brain across different groups of
mammals over 60 million years and identified huge variations in how their
brains have changed.
They found that there was a link
between the size of an animal’s brain in relation to the rest of its body and
how socially active it was.
The study analysed available data
on the brain and body size of over 500 species of living and fossilised
mammals. The brains of monkeys grew the most over time followed by horses,
dolphins, camels and dogs.
It found that groups of mammals
with relatively bigger brains tended to live in stable social groups. The
brains of more solitary mammals such as cats, deer and rhino, grew much more
slowly during the same period.
Previous research had suggested
that the growth rate of the brain relative to body size followed a general
trend across all animal groups.
The study published in Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences overturns this view, showing there is a
wide variation in patterns of brain growth across different groups of mammals
and not all of them have larger brains – suggesting social animals had to think
more.
Dr Susanne Shultz, who led the
research, said: “Dogs have always been regarded as the more social animals
while cats like to get on with their own thing alone. But it appears that
interaction is good for the brain and extends to other species, like ourselves.
Dr Shultz added: “All dogs are
quite good at solving problems, which gives credence to the traditional image
of the cunning fox which is a member of the same family. Dogs descended from
wolves which appear to have the biggest brains as they live in large family
groups.”
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