A group of researchers from the University of Zurich, Switzerland, has discovered evidence that among several species of animals that until now were believed to be silent, there are acoustic behaviors that they use to communicate.
Analyzing 53 species, 50 types of turtles were found, as well as the tuatara reptile.
In all forms of life, the team of scientists found repertoires of different sounds. The results were obtained by combining data on the vocalization abilities of species such as lizards, snakes, salamanders and other vertebrates, through phylogenetic trait reconstruction methods.
The starting point was a discipline of evolutionary biology concerned with understanding the historical relationships between different groups of organisms.
Despite the importance of acoustic communication between vertebrate animals, the knowledge available to date is scarce. If frogs, crocodiles, birds and mammals have been extensively studied, it has also been assumed that several evolutionary clades (branches of the various phylogenetic trees) do not have vocal manifestations.
The Swiss researchers relied on databases to trace a common origin of acoustic communication back to an ancestor that lived roughly more than 400 million years ago.
“It was found that all the recorded species have varied acoustic repertoires that encompass a number of different sounds and supplements to listen to them, as well as for sound descriptions”, specifies the study published in the journal Nature.
Until now, the most widespread consensus favored the idea that acoustic communication had probably evolved multiple times, even emerging from different clades. However, the argument also lacked key information.
“Our results now show that this interconnection did not evolve several times in various clades, but rather has a common and ancient evolutionary origin,” Marcelo R. Sánchez-Villagra, one of the main authors of the study, said in a statement.
numerous spectrum
The above, “together with a large data set based on the literature that includes 1,800 different species that cover the entire spectrum, shows that vocal communication is not only widespread in terrestrial vertebrates, but also evidences acoustic abilities in various groups. that were previously considered non-vocal”, detailed the first author Gabriel Jorgewich-Cohen, a doctoral student at the Paleontological Institute and Museum of that European university.
To analyze the sounds, the researchers made recordings at various sound frequencies.
Each animal was supervised for at least 24 hours in controlled environments, in order to avoid interference, and the samples were analyzed using specialized software, focusing on the parameters of fundamental frequency, minimum frequency, duration, type of sound and number of periods of exercise.
#discover #acoustic #intercommunication #species #considered #mute