Marine mammals as models for charting the evolution of social vocal rhythm.

Authors

Peter F Cook, Sophie Flem, Peter T Madsen, Andrea Ravignani, Pete Gremore, Carson Hood, Yannick Jadoul, Danai Papageorgiou, Michael Pedersen, Teresa Raimondi, Andrew Rouse, Pernille M Sørensen, Simone Videsen, Stephanie L King

Published in

BMC biology. Jul 04, 2026. Epub Jul 04, 2026.

Abstract

In this Perspective, we suggest combining physiological, neurobiological, behavioural, and social data from multiple marine mammal species to create evolutionary models of the emergence of social vocal coordination. Marine mammal sound production mechanisms have evolved to manage vocalizing and breathing in an aquatic environment, potentially releasing functional constraints on the control of vocal timing. Intervals in rhythmic cetacean vocalizations cover a remarkable temporal range, from less than a millisecond in porpoise burst pulses to 10 s in sperm whale slow clicks. Many cetaceans demonstrate temporally coordinated social behaviour, while pinnipeds express high variability in vocal plasticity and social behaviour. The systematic variability of vocal production mechanisms, vocal rhythms, and sociality can be compared phylogenetically to generate models for the evolution of social rhythm in the vocal domain.

PMID:
42399894
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 04 Jul 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.