Dataset Information

Vocal dialects in parrots: patterns and processes of cultural evolution.

ABSTRACT: Vocal dialects have fascinated biologists for over 50 years. This mosaic pattern of geographic variation in learned vocalizations was first described in a songbird, and since that time, most studies investigating dialects have focused on songbird species. Here we examine patterns of geographic variation in the calls of a different group of vocal learning birds, the parrots (Order Psittaciformes). We summarize the growing literature on vocal variation in parrots, and complement this review with a survey of variation in the genus Amazona using calls from sound libraries. We find strikingly similar patterns to those previously found in songbirds. Over 90% of parrots examined in the literature, and 69% of Amazona species surveyed, showed geographic variation consistent with a propensity to share local call types. This trait is evolutionarily labile and widespread; within Amazona most clades contained species with and without geographic variation, and most major lineages of parrots include representatives with dialects. We found little support for the long-standing hypothesis that dialects isolate populations and thus generate genetic differences among populations. Instead, most studies support the idea that dialects are maintained by social benefits of matching local call types, a finding that has implications for the management of captive and endangered populations. Considerable scope remains for studies that experimentally test hypotheses for the exact nature of these benefits, as well as studies that employ comparisons among species, to understand how the interplay between ecology, social dynamics and vocal learning capacities produces different patterns of variation across the parrots.

SUBMITTER: Wright TF

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6020700 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Vocal dialects in parrots: patterns and processes of cultural evolution.

Wright Timothy F TF Dahlin Christine R CR

The Emu 20171020 1

Vocal dialects have fascinated biologists for over 50 years. This mosaic pattern of geographic variation in learned vocalizations was first described in a songbird, and since that time, most studies investigating dialects have focused on songbird species. Here we examine patterns of geographic variation in the calls of a different group of vocal learning birds, the parrots (Order Psittaciformes). We summarize the growing literature on vocal variation in parrots, and complement this review with a ...[more]

PMID: 29962561

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Project description:Mitochondrial genome rearrangements that result in control region duplication have been described for a variety of birds, but the mechanisms leading to their appearance and maintenance remain unclear, and their effect on sequence evolution has not been explored. A recent survey of mitochondrial genomes in the Psittaciformes (parrots) found that control region duplications have arisen independently at least six times across the order. We analyzed complete mitochondrial genome sequences from 20 parrot species, including representatives of each lineage with control region duplications, to document the gene order changes and to examine effects of genome rearrangements on patterns of sequence evolution. The gene order previously reported for Amazona parrots was found for four of the six independently derived genome rearrangements, and a previously undescribed gene order was found in Prioniturus luconensis, representing a fifth clade with rearranged genomes; the gene order resulting from the remaining rearrangement event could not be confirmed. In all rearranged genomes, two copies of the control region are present and are very similar at the sequence level, while duplicates of the other genes involved in the rearrangement show signs of degeneration or have been lost altogether. We compared rates of sequence evolution in genomes with and without control region duplications and did not find a consistent acceleration or deceleration associated with the duplications. This could be due to the fact that most of the genome rearrangement events in parrots are ancient, and additionally, to an effect of body size on evolutionary rate that we found for mitochondrial but not nuclear sequences. Base composition analyses found that relative to other birds, parrots have unusually strong compositional asymmetry (AT- and GC-skew) in their coding sequences, especially at fourfold degenerate sites. Furthermore, we found higher AT skew in species with control region duplications. One potential cause for this compositional asymmetry is that parrots have unusually slow mtDNA replication. If this is the case, then any replicative advantage provided by having a second control region could result in selection for maintenance of both control regions once duplicated.

Project description:All results in this paper are based upon a new dataset consisting in 60 Swadesh lists of 207 items, overall 12,420 terms collected during 2018-2019. Each list corresponds to a different variety of Malagasy, which is not simply identified by the name of the ethnicity but also by the precise location where the variety was collected. This is very important since some traditional ethnic groups are a heritage of historical events rather than representing communities with similar habits and dialects. This new dataset is by far the best available, both for dimension and completeness. The varieties are classified both by standard tools, as the trees generated by UPGMA and NJ which privilege genealogy by detecting vertical transmissions, and by a new method which privileges horizontal exchanges. The new method results in a two-dimensional chart of Madagascar which realistically reproduces geography despite being generated only by comparison of words. The landing date of the ancestors of Malagasy is determined about 650 CE. This result is obtained by a straightforward approach based on the comparison of the UPGMA Malagasy family tree with the analogous tree of Romance family of languages for which all dates are well historically attested. We also propose an improved definition of Diversity computed for every locus in Madagascar and not only in places where the dialects were collected. Moreover, Diversity becomes a locally determined quantity as it is usually in biology. Diversity differences point to the South-East coast as the location where the first colonizers landed or, at least, where Malagasy variants started their dispersion. Finally, we find that the dialect spoken by the Mikea, a hunter-gatherer people in the South-West of Madagascar, is not very different from the variants of their neighbours Vezo and Masikoro. Therefore, Mikea unlikely can be linked to eventual aboriginal populations living in Madagascar prior to the main colonization event in 650 CE.

Dataset Information

Vocal dialects in parrots: patterns and processes of cultural evolution.

Publications

Vocal dialects in parrots: patterns and processes of cultural evolution.

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