The evolution of language: a comparative review

For many years the evolution of language has been seen as a disreputable topic, mired in fanciful "just so stories" about language origins. However, in the last decade a new synthesis of modern linguistics, cognitive neuroscience and neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory has begun to make important contributions to our understanding of the biology and evolution of language. I review some of this recent progress, focusing on the value of the comparative method, which uses data from animal species to draw inferences about language evolution. Discussing speech first, I show how data concerning a wide variety of species, from monkeys to birds, can increase our understanding of the anatomical and neural mechanisms underlying human spoken language, and how bird and whale song provide insights into the ultimate evolutionary function of language. I discuss the ‘‘descended larynx’ ’ of humans, a peculiar adaptation for speech that has received much attention in the past, which despite earlier claims is not uniquely human. Then I will turn to the neural mechanisms underlying spoken language, pointing out the difficulties animals apparently experience in perceiving hierarchical structure in sounds, and stressing the importance of vocal imitation in the evolution of a spoken language. Turning to ultimate function, I suggest that communication among kin (especially between parents and offspring) played a crucial but neglected role in driving language evolution. Finally, I briefly discuss phylogeny, discussing hypotheses that offer plausible routes to human language from a non-linguistic chimp-like ancestor. I conclude that comparative data from living animals will be key to developing a richer, more interdisciplinary understanding of our most distinctively human trait: language

Fluctuating asymmetry as an animal welfare indicator: a review of methodology and validity

It has been suggested that fluctuating asymmetry (FA) reflects an animal's ability to cope with the sum of challenges during its growing period and, thus, is a potential welfare indicator. In this review we investigate the evidence of associations between FA and other welfare indicators measured at the level of the individual and of effects of welfare-relevant environmental conditions on FA in populations of captive birds and mammals including humans. As the question of validity cannot be treated independently from the quality of the available data, first a checklist for the proper measurement and analysis of FA is drafted and used to evaluate the methodological quality of the various studies. We recommend this checklist to be used as a standard for future FA studies. We found 17 relevant studies on associations between FA and other welfare indicators, and 36 studies on effects of welfare-relevant factors on FA. Frequent methodological shortcomings or insufficient methodological information allow for only cautious conclusions. The proportion of significant results supporting the link between higher FA and poorer welfare is only moderately high. Independent from statistical significance, almost all studies found the relationship between FA and welfare to be prevailingly in the expected direction. FA is a promising measure of animal welfare, despite a great number of open questions, e.g. relating to the ontogeny of FA or its sensitivity to various stressors. The considerable potential of FA as a welfare indicator makes it worthwhile to pursue more intensely validation studies as well as applied studies. These studies should pay particular attention to an appropriate methodological approach. © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved

Paleolithic Man of Denisova Cave and Zoogeography of Pleistocene Mammals of Northwestern Altai

Mammal population of the northwestern Altai included residents, autochthonous species, cosmopolitans, and migrants. The last clearly indicate biogeographical relationships of the biota of the Altai Mountains in the Pleistocene. Most of them penetrated into the Altai from the south. The majority of ungulates and rodents migrated from Central Asia. Yak, red dog, and snow leopard came from the Himalayas, Pamir, and Tien Shan. The natural environment of the Altai Mountains in the Pleistocene enabled migrations of these mammals from the south to north. The same opportunity was true of the ancient man. It is possible to assume that humans migrated from southeastern Asia and Indochina along the eastern foothills of the Himalayas and Nan Shan Mountains to the northwest, to the Zaisan Depression and Altai. This resulted in inevitable exchange of gene material of Paleolithic human populations of southeastern Asia and the Altai