Body size and sexual selection shaped the evolution of parrot calls

Marcolin, Fabio; Cardoso, Gonçalo C.; Bento, Daniel; Reino, Luís; Santana, Joana

doi:10.1111/jeb.13986

Cited by 10 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 101 publications

(160 reference statements)

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“…However, adult ostriches have a wider vocal repertoire than is often discussed, with our study identifying at least 5 distinct adult tonal call types (not including hisses) (Figure 6). The fundamental frequencies of adults were significantly lower than juveniles, as would be expected in a bird that goes through an extreme change in body size through ontogeny even among other paleognaths, reaching an average adult body mass of 111 kg (Bradbury & Vehrencamp, 2011;Dunning, 2008;Fletcher, 2004;Friis et al, 2021;Marcolin et al, 2022). One hypothesis that has been lightly discussed in ostriches and other paleognaths is that a biomechanical or energetic constraint on the ostrich syrinx such as higher driving pressures required to vibrate increasingly large labia prevents adults from vocalizing as frequently or for as long as juveniles.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…We took two measurements of fundamental frequency, for each call: maximum and minimum fundamental frequency. These measurements often scale to different degrees with body mass, and thus possibly age (Friis et al., 2021; Marcolin et al., 2022). The discrepancy may result from different mechanisms limiting the lowermost and uppermost frequencies that an animal produces (Elemans et al., 2009; Marcolin et al., 2022; Titze, 1994).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ostrich (Struthio camelus) syrinx morphology and vocal repertoire across postnatal ontogeny and sex: Implications for understanding vocal evolution in birds

Chiappone,

Rodriguez‐Saltos,

Legendre

et al. 2023

Journal of Anatomy

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Vocal production in birds has been the target of considerable research that mostly has focused on phylogenetically well‐nested songbirds. Anatomical descriptions and recordings of many non‐songbirds have often only focused on a single ontogenetic stage or sex. While basic morphology of the vocal organ (syrinx) of ostrich (Palaeognathae, Struthio camelus) has been known since the 1800s, descriptions of its vocal repertoire and syrinx anatomy since then have been incomplete or inconsistent. New toolkits now enable detailed qualitative description of internal anatomy and meristic data and allow it to be compared to vocal production. Here we describe the anatomy of the syrinx in Struthio camelus for three post‐hatching ontogenetic stages and both an adult male and female utilizing dissection and contrast enhanced X‐ray computed tomography (diceCT). We find changes in ring geometry and spacing through ontogeny as well as lateral labia thickness. We document a small unpaired, midline, cartilaginous structure, a “pessuliform process” at the tracheobronchial juncture present throughout ontogeny and in both males and females. Investigation of the vocal repertoire of ostriches across ontogeny using a new dataset of 77 recordings led to identification of four vocalizations not previously reported in the literature, including the simultaneous production of a hiss and tonal. We find syrinx morphology largely consistent across ontogeny and in male and female adults. Both are capable of producing long duration tonal calls, but these may be more frequent in male birds. Closed‐mouth boom calls remain unique to males. A detailed understanding of diversity in parts of early diverging clades is pivotal in attempting to estimate features of the ancestral syrinx in birds and how avian vocalization evolved.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 78%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ostrich (Struthio camelus) syrinx morphology and vocal repertoire across postnatal ontogeny and sex: Implications for understanding vocal evolution in birds

Chiappone,

Rodriguez‐Saltos,

Legendre

et al. 2023

Journal of Anatomy

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“…Although companion parrots are known to learn from conspecifics, that learning does not appear to shape repertoire sizes 53 . Open questions remain about whether signal complexity, repertoire size, or aspects of vocal learning covary with social complexity at a larger scale among parrots 55 . Follow up studies should address these questions using phylogenetically-controlled methods 56 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A survey of vocal mimicry in companion parrots

Benedict

Charles

Brockington

et al. 2022

Sci Rep

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Parrots are one of the rare animal taxa with life-long vocal learning. Parrot vocal repertoires are difficult to study in the wild, but companion parrots offer a valuable data source. We surveyed the public about mimicry repertoires in companion parrots to determine whether vocal learning varied by (1) species, (2) sex, (3) age, and (4) social interaction with other parrots. Species differed significantly in mimicry ability, with grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) having the largest mimicry repertoires. Analyses of all birds (n = 877) found no overarching effects of sex, age, or parrot-parrot social interactions on mimicry repertoires. Follow up analyses (n = 671), however, revealed a human bias to assume that talking parrots are male, and indicated that five of the 19 best-sampled species exhibited sex differences. Age-specific analyses of grey parrots (n = 187) indicated that repertoire size did not increase during adulthood. Most parrots were capable of improvisation (e.g. rearranging words) and used mimicry in appropriate human contexts. Results indicate that parrot vocal production learning varies among and within species, suggesting that the mechanisms and functions of learning also vary. Our data provide a rich foundation for future comparative research on avian vocalizations, and broaden our understanding of the underpinnings of communicative behavior and learning across all animals.

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“…As a result, we sometimes see signatures of an evolutionary trade-off between different signal modalities across large groups of taxa [12]. Support for this relationship is found among species in several avian clades, such as finches, dabbling ducks and antwrens, all of which show a clear negative relationship between measures of display complexity for acoustic and visual signals [13–16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Correlated evolution between colour conspicuousness and drum speed in woodpeckers

Cárdenas‐Posada

Fuxjager

2022

R. Soc. open sci.

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Sexual selection drives the evolution of many spectacular animal displays that we see in nature. Yet, how selection combines and elaborates different signal traits remains unclear. Here, we investigate this issue by testing for correlated evolution between head plumage colour and drumming behaviour in woodpeckers. These signals function in the context of mate choice and male–male competition, and they may appear to a receiver as a single multimodal display. We test for such correlations in males of 132 species using phylogenetic linear models, while considering the effect of habitat. We find that the plumage chromatic contrast is positively correlated with the speed of the drum, supporting the idea that species evolving more conspicuous plumage on their head also evolve faster drum displays. By contrast, we do not find evidence of correlated evolution between drum speed and head colour diversity, size of the head's red patch, or extent of the plumage achromatic contrast. Drum length was not correlated with any of the plumage coloration metrics. Lastly, we find no evidence that habitat acts as a strong selective force driving the evolution of head coloration or drumming elaboration. Coevolution between different signal modalities is therefore complex, and probably depends on the display components in question.

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Body size and sexual selection shaped the evolution of parrot calls

Cited by 10 publications

References 101 publications

Ostrich (Struthio camelus) syrinx morphology and vocal repertoire across postnatal ontogeny and sex: Implications for understanding vocal evolution in birds

Ostrich (Struthio camelus) syrinx morphology and vocal repertoire across postnatal ontogeny and sex: Implications for understanding vocal evolution in birds

A survey of vocal mimicry in companion parrots

Correlated evolution between colour conspicuousness and drum speed in woodpeckers

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