On diet and gut size in non-human primates and humans: is there a relationship to brain size?

International audienceOur pioneering paper includes measurements of gut size was a study ofthe allometric relationship of gut and body size for various dietary adaptations. It was disappointing that Aiello and Wheeler did not use the measurements on human guts, made with a similar method, introduced in papers published in the 80's (e.g. Mac Larnon et al., 1986). Some of these data are reported here, combined with one of our original figures (Chivers and Hladik, 1980) illustrating the reduced major axis for three major dietary tendencies of primates and other mammals (folivore / frugivore / faunivore). The human specimens fall, as expected, on the main axis for frugivore, a gross category corresponding to fruit and seed eaters (or omnivorous, when occasional meat eating is practiced)