According to a study by Oxford University, dogs have developed, over millions of years, bigger brains than cats. The study showed that highly social species of mammals, say dogs, dolphins and monkeys, need more brain power than solitary animals, like cats.
The study suggest that there is a link between the degree of sociality of mammals and the size of their brains, relatively to their body size.
The study analyzed data that was available on brain and body size of more than 500 species of living and fossilized mammals. It showed that over time, the brains of monkeys have grew the most, followed by horses, dolphins, camels and dogs. On the other hand, the brains of most solitary mammals, like the cats, deer and rhino have shown to grow more slowly, during the same period.
Before this study, it was believed that brain growth had followed a trend across all groups of mammal, meaning that all mammals brain had grew at the same speed, all the same way. But it is now believed that the brain of groups of highly social mammals have developed faster than the groups of more solitary mammals. This discovery suggests that some mammals have develop larger brains, faster, in order to be able to cope with the demands of social living.
But there is still a question that is not answered. Does a big brains equals more intelligence?
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