Integration Hypothesis: Humans Learned Speech From Other Primates And Songs From Birds
Thursday, June 12, 2014 - 19:30
in Biology & Nature
On the island of Java, in Indonesia, the silvery gibbon, an endangered primate, lives in the rainforests and engages in behavior that's unusual for a primate - it sings long, complicated songs, using 14 different note types, that signal territory and send messages to potential mates and family. Far from being a mere curiosity, the silvery gibbon may hold clues to the development of language in humans, according to a paper which asserts that by re-examining contemporary human language, we can see indications of how human communication could have evolved from the systems underlying the older communication modes of birds and other primates. read more