Studies of the biology of music (as of language) are highly interdisciplinary and demand the
integration of diverse strands of evidence. In this paper, I present a comparative perspective …

Sixty years ago, Karl Lashley suggested that complex action sequences, from simple motor
acts to language and music, are a fundamental but neglected aspect of neural function …

One standout feature of human language is our ability to reference external objects and
events with socially learned symbols, or words. Exploring the phylogenetic origins of this …

Primate vocal behavior is often considered irrelevant in modeling human language
evolution, mainly because of the caller's limited vocal control and apparent lack of …

Pygmy marmosets (Cebuella pygmaea) modified the structure of their trill vocalizations in
response to pairing with a new mate. Prior to pairing, individual marmosets displayed …

The study of bird song has made significant contributions to the develop-ment of modern
ethology (Konishi, 1985; Konishi, Emlen, Ricklefs, and Wingfield, 1989; Catchpole and …

In almost all songbird species studied males sing, but differences in female song range from
species where females have never been observed to sing to those where females sing as …

How did we become the linguistic, cultured, and hugely successful apes that we are? Our
closest relatives--the other mentally complex and socially skilled primates--offer tantalizing …

Male chimpanzees produce a species-typical long distance call known as the pant hoot.
Males give acoustically similar pant hoots when calling together during choruses, but the …

Social factors play a key role in the structuring of vocal repertoires at the individual level,
notably in non-human primates. Some authors suggested that, at the species level too …