Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Chimpanzee call variants offer insights into roots of language diversification
"Chimpanzees benefit from cooperating with bond partners, and are thus particularly likely to gain from staying close to cooperation partners," researcher Catherine Crockford said.
By Brooks Hays | May 23, 2018 at 2:38 PM
May 23 (UPI) -- Why and how did our ape ancestors first diversify their vocabulary, making the evolution of language possible? New research suggests the call variants deployed by chimpanzees can offer clues.
Previous studies have shown species that use different fight or flight responses for different predation threats also use different alarm calls. In other words, the diversification of danger can drive language diversification.
In the newest study, published this week in the journal Royal Society Open Science, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology considered how language might diversify under less stressful conditions.
For clues, scientists looked to the 'hoo' call performed by chimpanzees.
More:
https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2018/05/23/5011527096701/
