PELVIC SEXUAL DIMORPHISM AND RELATIVE NEONATAL BRAIN SIZE REALLY ARE RELATED - BRIEF COMMUNICATION

Primate species in which the neonatal brain size is large relative to the birth canal tend to have more sexually dimorphic pelves: this is a classic comparative relation, discovered by Schultz and Leutenegger. The original work did not correct for phylogenetic nonindependence of the data points; it only partly corrected for body size; it used ratios in both variables, and the size of the female pubis featured in both x- and y-variables. A recent publication by Tague placed a question mark over the validity of the relation. I therefore retested it, correcting for all four statistical defects. A strongly significant statistical relation exists. (C) 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.