Frogs squeaks, birds chirp, cats meow - many vertebrates communicate with each other through acoustic noises. Communication is part of parental care, the choice of partner or serves as a warning. When the vertebrates in evolutionary history started to communicate with each other was so far unknown. An international research team led by Gabriel Jorewich-Cohen from the University of Zurich has now shown that the evolutionary origin of acoustic communication was more than 400 million years ago and could have arisen during a joint ancestor. The researchers published the results in the specialist magazine »Nature Communications«.
In order to determine the origin of communication, the working group collected loud reveals and information on the behavior of more than 50 species from four main groups of vertebrates - turtles, bridge lumps, creepis and lung fishing - which have so far not been examined. She supplemented her results with already available information about 1800 different species to cover the entire range of species.
"Our study shows that acoustic communication is not only widespread in terrestrial vertebrates, but also demonstrates such abilities in several groups that were previously considered non-vocal," says first author Gabriel Jorgewich-Cohen, a doctoral student at the Paleontological Institute and Museum of the University of Zurich, according to a press release. Turtles, for example, have, unlike previously assumed, a wide and complex sound repertoire.
In the next step, the scientists reconstructed the tribal development. To do this, they evaluated data that are available through the loudness of vertebrates, such as lizards, snakes, salamander or amphibians. In their study, they also generally incorporated data from mammals, birds or frogs. The result: »According to our reconstructions, acoustic communication is a common feature of these animals. This is at least as old as her last common ancestor, who lived about 407 million years ago, «explains study director Marcelo Sánchez-Villagra from the University of Zurich. The investigation suggests that the communication of the vertebrates has developed from a common origin despite the different structure of the sound and hearing organ.
