Late Still Equals Large

ly large by rule, independent of specific niches and behaviors – we struggled to account for it in terms of ‘developmental constraints’ and ‘spandrels’. Now, we attempt to understand the conserved pattern of allometric scaling as a substrate for ‘evolvability’. That is, we investigate what features such a conserved plan might afford for graceful scaling and facilitated variability (that is, genetic variation translated through conserved genetic and epigenetic contexts which coordinate and stabilize functionality), working this out in some detail for the nocturnal and diurnal primate eye. Of course, understanding behavioral variability remains the goal, but because relative volumes of specific neural structures rarely correlate well with specific capacities, most researchers have sensibly turned their attention elsewhere.