The brain size of some mammal species is getting larger, possibly due to human alterations in the natural environment. University of Minnesota biologist Emilie C. Snell-Rood studied a collection of mammal skulls at the Bell Museum of Natural History at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Snell-Rood studied ten species of small mammals, including mice, shrews, bats, and gophers. Using skulls that were collected over the past century, her research team documented a six percent increase in brain size in white-footed mice and meadow voles collected in cities or suburbs, as compared to animals from rural areas. Dr. Snell-Rood also found an increase in brain size in four species from rural parts of Minnesota.
Read the article published in the New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/science/as-humans-change-landscape-brains-of-some-animals-change-too.html?ref=science&_r=0.