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Orangutans can BEATBOX: Incredible video reveals how monkeys can make two separate sounds at the same time
- Orangutans can make two separate sounds at once, just like beatboxers
- The findings may provide clues about the evolution of human speech
The animal kingdom is full of weird and wonderful sounds.
But orangutans have perhaps the most unique sound of all: they turn out to be able to beatbox.
A new study shows that the animals can make two separate sounds at the same time, much like songbirds or human beatboxers.
And researchers say this could provide clues about the evolution of human speech.
A team of scientists spent a total of 3,800 hours observing two populations of vocalizing orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra.
The animal kingdom is full of weird and wonderful sounds. But orangutans have perhaps the most unique sound of all: they turn out to be able to beatbox
They found that primates within both groups used the same vocal phenomenon.
Dr. Adriano Lameira, associate professor of psychology at the University of Warwick said: ‘People use the lips, tongue and jaw to make the voiceless sounds of consonants, while activating the vocal folds in the larynx with exhaled air to make the voiced, open sounds . sounds of vowels.
Orangutans are also capable of producing both kinds of sounds – and both at the same time.
For example, large male orangutans in Borneo produce sounds known as ‘chomps’ combined with ‘grumbles’ in combative situations.
‘Female orangutans in Sumatra produce ‘kissing squeaks’ along with ‘rolling calls’ to warn others of a potential predator threat.
“The fact that two separate populations of orangutans have been observed calling twice at the same time proves that this is a biological phenomenon.”
Co-author and independent researcher Dr Madeleine Hardus added: ‘People rarely produce voiced and unvoiced sounds at the same time.
The exception is beatboxing, a skillful vocal performance that mimics the complex beats of hip-hop music.
“But the mere fact that humans are anatomically capable of beatboxing raises questions about where that ability comes from. We now know that the answer may lie in the evolution of our ancestors.’
According to the authors, the vocal control and coordination capabilities of wild apes have been underestimated compared to the focus on the vocal abilities of birds.
“Producing two sounds, just like birds singing, resembles spoken language, but the anatomy of birds bears no resemblance to ours, so it is difficult to make connections between birdsong and spoken human language,” added Dr. Hard on it.
The new research has implications for the vocal abilities of our shared ancestors and for the evolution of human speech, as well as human beatboxing.
Dr. Lameira said: ‘Now that we know that this vocal ability is part of the repertoire of the great apes, we cannot ignore the evolutionary connections.
“It could be possible that early human language resembled something more like beatboxing, before evolution organized language into the consonant-vowel structure we know today.”
The findings were published in the journal PNAS Nexus.