Animals communicate acoustically to report location and identity to conspecifics. More complex patterning of calls can also function as displays to potential mates and as territorial advertisement. Music and song are terms often reserved only for humans and birds, but elements of both forms of acoustic display are also found in non-human primates. While theories on proximate functions abound, ultimate drivers of specific call structures are less well understood. We hypothesized that spatio-temporal precision in landing during perilous arboreal locomotion favored the evolution of musical calling in early primates, vastly preceding the origin of more music-like behavior in hominoids and subsequent emergence of music in later hominids. We test this locomotion-based hypothesis on the origins of proto-musicality using spectrographic depictions of vocal repertoires of modern day primates and corresponding estimates of locomotor activity. Phylogenetically controlled regression analysis of 54 primate species reveals that arboreal locomotion and monogamy are robust influences on complex calling patterns while controlling for other socioecological variables. Given that these findings rest primarily upon a handful of deep branching points in the primate tree, we conclude that this coevolution likely occurred very slowly, occupying on the order of tens of millions of years.

中文翻译：

---

通过运动进化灵长类动物的原始性

动物通过声音交流以向物种报告位置和身份。更为复杂的呼叫模式还可以充当潜在伴侣的显示和区域广告。音乐和歌曲是通常只保留给人类和鸟类使用的术语，但是在非人类的灵长类动物中也可以找到两种形式的声音显示元素。尽管关于近距离功能的理论比比皆是，但对特定调用结构的最终驱动因素的了解却很少。我们假设危险的树栖运动期间着陆的时空精确性有利于早期灵长类动物的音乐叫声进化，大大早于类人动物中类似音乐行为的起源和后来的人类音乐的出现。我们使用现代灵长类动物的声乐谱的光谱描述和运动活动的相应估计，测试了这种基于运动的假说的原始音乐起源的假设。系统发育控制的54个灵长类物种的回归分析表明，树栖运动和一夫一妻制对复杂的呼唤模式具有强大的影响力，同时控制其他社会生态变量。鉴于这些发现主要基于灵长类动物树中的少数深分支点，因此我们得出结论，这种协同进化可能发生得非常缓慢，占据了数千万年的数量级。系统发育控制的54种灵长类动物回归分析表明，树栖运动和一夫一妻制对复杂的呼唤模式有很强的影响，同时控制其他社会生态变量。鉴于这些发现主要基于灵长类动物树中的少数深分支点，因此我们得出结论，这种协同进化可能发生得非常缓慢，占据了数千万年的数量级。系统发育控制的54个灵长类物种的回归分析表明，树栖运动和一夫一妻制对复杂的呼唤模式具有强大的影响力，同时控制其他社会生态变量。鉴于这些发现主要基于灵长类动物树中的少数深分支点，因此我们得出结论，这种协同进化可能发生得非常缓慢，占据了数千万年的数量级。