Evolution Diary

A new study has linked diet to evolutionary brain size in orangutans living on the Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra.

The research, published in the Journal of Human Evolution by researchers from Duke University and the University of Zurich, found that orangutans inhabiting areas in Borneo where food supplies are frequently depleted may have evolved comparatively smaller brains than orangutans living in more fruitful parts of Sumatra.

“[Our] suggest that temporary, unavoidable food scarcity may select for a decrease in brain size, perhaps accompanied by only small or subtle decreases in body size,” said Andrea Taylor, an assistant professor at Duke’s departments of Biological Anthropology and Anatomy and of Community and Family Medicine, and Carel van Schaik, director the University of Zurich’s Anthropological Institute & Museum and an adjunct professor of biological anthropology and anatomy at Duke.

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