title: The life-history basis of behavioural innovations.
abstract: The evolutionary origin of innovativeness remains puzzling because innovating means responding to novel or unusual problems and hence is unlikely to be selected by itself. A plausible alternative is considering innovativeness as a co-opted product of traits that have evolved for other functions yet together predispose individuals to solve problems by adopting novel behaviours. However, this raises the question of why these adaptations should evolve together in an animal. Here, we develop the argument that the adaptations enabling animals to innovate evolve together because they are jointly part of a life-history strategy for coping with environmental changes. In support of this claim, we present comparative evidence showing that in birds, (i) innovative propensity is linked to life histories that prioritize future over current reproduction, (ii) the link is in part explained by differences in brain size, and (iii) innovative propensity and life-history traits may evolve together in generalist species that frequently expose themselves to novel or unusual conditions. Combined with previous evidence, these findings suggest that innovativeness is not a specialized adaptation but more likely part of a broader general adaptive system to cope with changes in the environment.
authors.affiliation: CREAF, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Catalonia 08193, Spain CSIC, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Catalonia 08193, Spain d.sol@creaf.uab.cat.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sol
authors.affiliation: CREAF, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Catalonia 08193, Spain.
authors.forename: Ferran
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sayol
authors.affiliation: School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia.
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ducatez
authors.affiliation: CREAF, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Catalonia 08193, Spain Department of Biology, McGill University, 1205, Avenue Docteur Penfield, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3A 1B1.
authors.forename: Louis
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lefebvre
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000818:Animals; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001717:Birds / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D008136:Longevity; D008954:Models, Biological; D009929:Organ Size
keywords: behavioural plasticity; brain evolution; creativity; developmental constrains; pace-of-life