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Consider: many pipsqueak critters can and do deepen their calls.
Many of those animals ALSO have "vocal learning" powers.
Coincidence? For @NYTScience, I wrote about a new theory of how seals, elephants, bats, and humans took control of our voices. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/science/mammals-vocal-learning.html
Many of those animals ALSO have "vocal learning" powers.
Coincidence? For @NYTScience, I wrote about a new theory of how seals, elephants, bats, and humans took control of our voices. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/science/mammals-vocal-learning.html
Okay you should click through but otherwise let's break this down.
The pitch of our voices relates to testosterone; perceived "maleness." But there are other aspects of our voices -- called formant frequencies -- that encode the physical size of the body that produced them.
The pitch of our voices relates to testosterone; perceived "maleness." But there are other aspects of our voices -- called formant frequencies -- that encode the physical size of the body that produced them.
As it turns out, there's a real payoff in mating or scaring away rivals to being able to "fake" formant frequencies that sound like they come from a massive resonating chamber. Your body must be huge!
Koalas, my first example in the story, are like this.
Koalas, my first example in the story, are like this.
So are red deer bulls, which sound like huge cows. Both they and koalas "cheat" to make deep sounds with an anatomical adaptation that changes the geometry of their vocal system. Koalas have lots of vocal folds; red deer pull their larynxes way down into their sternums.
In these and similar cases, @_MaximeGarcia and @AndreaRavignani argue, at some point EVERYONE in the species has evolved the same anatomical trick. At which point the biggest males can still do the trick the best. They still win. Game over.
But then there's another option! Instead of an anatomical fix you could have willful control over your voice in order to sound "big". If you're an elephant, you can choose to make sounds in your mouth or through your trunk + then you can change the length of your trunk.
In species like this, you might start to have vocal control, all sparked by that initial pressure to sound big.
You might gain the power to invent new sounds, to imitate what you hear, to hum back notes played to you like seals can... even speech.
You might gain the power to invent new sounds, to imitate what you hear, to hum back notes played to you like seals can... even speech.
I'm losing momentum! But you get the gist.
Traditional ideas are like:
Sharing info in your voice is rewarded, so you evolve the ability to modulate voice on the road to that.
This poses instead:
Sounding big is rewarded, so you might also evolve vocal control for that.
Traditional ideas are like:
Sharing info in your voice is rewarded, so you evolve the ability to modulate voice on the road to that.
This poses instead:
Sounding big is rewarded, so you might also evolve vocal control for that.
END THREAD
Go read the story, or find the original paper at https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0081.
Also know that the single best part of writing this was getting to lose another afternoon on Hoover the seal, and also sending Michael Winslow clips to a bioacoustician.
Go read the story, or find the original paper at https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0081.
Also know that the single best part of writing this was getting to lose another afternoon on Hoover the seal, and also sending Michael Winslow clips to a bioacoustician.
