Why Are Dog’s Brains Getting Bigger and Bigger? Scientists Are Stumped

Amaze Lab

In nature generally the larger the brain the smarter the creature. Well now, new research suggests that the brains of domestic dogs are getting larger, but scientists are sort of baffled as to why.

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00:00in nature generally the larger the brain the smarter the creature well now new

00:08research suggests that the brains of domestic dogs are getting larger but

00:12scientists are sort of baffled as to why domestication has long been a mechanism

00:16for smaller brains and animals and sort of humans as well over the last three

00:19millennia anthropologists say human brains have shrunk in volume and

00:23compared to wolves dog relative brain size is smaller as well but now a new

00:27study published in the journal evolution outlines how the more different the

00:30dog breed is from a wolf now the larger the brain experts believe that when dogs

00:34were first domesticated their brains shrunk as they no longer needed as much

00:37bandwidth as they could rely on their human best friends but now as breeding

00:41has caused forced evolution over the last several thousand years their

00:44cognitive abilities are likely getting better meaning their brains are growing

00:48with evolutionary biologist nicholas calm saying about the findings quote

00:51different dog breeds live in varying levels of social complexity and perform

00:55complex tasks which likely require a larger brain capacity though the

00:59researchers found that the only correlation of brain growth was how

01:02dissimilar the breeds were to wolves rather than their actual cognitive

01:06abilities

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