Reply to the note of Jason A. KAUFMAN "On the Expensive-Tissue Hypothesis: Independent Support from Highly Encephalized Fish

Overview & Synopsis

The relationship between gut size and brain size do not appear as a possible solution to explain the conditions of evolution towards large brained Homo. If we consider the data computed by R.D. Martin (1983), that we introduced in a discussion on the evolution of human dietary adaptations, the four groups shown by four independent regression lines, respectively for 'basal' insectivores, 'advanced insectivores, and especially among strpsirhine primates and haplorhine primates, include species adapted to a wide range of diets, (insect-eaters, fruit-eaters and leaf-eaters). Thus, taking into account the allometric relationships, dietary adaptations appear to be totally independent of brain size, in each of the four groups.