Big Brains Better Survival

More information on natural selection...

Science & Technology at Scientific American.com: Being Bird-Brained Is Not So Bad--as Long as It Is a Big Bird Brain -- Study of over 200 avian species finds that the bigger the bird brain, the better the survival rate.: "Lefebvre stresses that birds with relatively small brains (compared with the rest of their bodies) are not necessarily doomed. 'Obviously there must be something that's keeping those small-brained birds around, because an advantage like that would normally lead to selection against any [genetic variants] that would lead to small brains in the species,' he explains. Yet, partridges, pheasants, and even emus continue to thrive."