Taking turns: bridging the gap between human and animal communication
Open accessAbstract
Language, humans’ most distinctive trait, still remains a ‘mystery’ for evolutionary theory. It is underpinned by a universal infrastructure—cooperative turn-taking—which has been suggested as an ancient mechanism bridging the existing gap between the articulate human species and their inarticulate primate cousins. However, we know remarkably little about turn-taking systems of non-human animals, and methodological confounds have often prevented meaningful cross-species comparisons. Thus, the extent to which cooperative turn-taking is uniquely human or represents a homologous and/or analogous trait is currently unknown. The present paper draws attention to this promising research avenue by providing an overview of the state of the art of turn-taking in four animal taxa—birds, mammals, insects and anurans. It concludes with a new comparative framework to spur more research into this research domain and to test which elements of the human turn-taking system are shared across species and taxa.
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The digital era changed the questions researchers asked, allowing communication systems to be compared across species and clades with statistical precision and laying groundwork for phylogenetically informed studies of communication evolution.
“In hindsight, the digital era did more than speed up data collection—it changed the very questions researchers asked. Communication systems could now be compared across species and clades with statistical precision, laying the groundwork for phylogenetically informed studies of communication evolution”
From Listening forward: emerging roles of bioacoustics in ecology, evolution, and conservation (2026) · cites this paper as Pika et al. 2018
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References 132 · Cited by 215
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- [13]Tomasello M 2008 Origins of human communications. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
- [17]Schegloff EA 2006 Interaction: the infrastructure for social institutions, the natural ecological niche for language, and the arena in which culture is enacted. In Roots of human sociality, culture, cognition and interaction (eds NJ Enfield, SC Levinson), pp. 70– 96. Oxford, UK: New York, Berg.
- Authors
- Pika, S., Wilkinson, R., Kendrick, K. H., & Vernes, S. C.
- Affiliations
- Osnabrück University (DE)
- University of Sheffield (GB)
- University of York (GB)
- Radboud University Nijmegen (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Pika, Simone
- Venue
- Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2018-06-06
- Volume
- 285
- Issue
- 1880
- Pages
- 20180598
- ISSN
- 0080-4649 (ISSN-L)
- 0962-8452
- 1471-2954
- PMC
- PMC6015850
- OpenAlex
- W2807299216
- Cited by
- 215
- References
- 132
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 43 · 2023: 33 · 2022: 32 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 9
- FWCI
- 4.02
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) (acceptedVersion)
- White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) (submittedVersion)
- Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- St Andrews Research Repository (St Andrews Research Repository) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Levelt Innovation Award, Max Planck Research Group)
- Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung (No. DEU/1069105))
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Developmental Biology › Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Keywords
- turn-taking, human language evolution, animal communication, primate communication, comparative cognition, birds, mammals, insects, Anura, cross-species comparison
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Animal Communication, Anura, Birds, Biological Evolution, Insecta, Language, Mammals
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