Evolution of toothed whale vocal repertoires
Toothed whale acoustic signals have been studied extensively for over 70 years, yet the scope of their vocal repertoire and the underlying factors shaping repertoire evolution remains largely unknown. This represents an important gap in knowledge that limits our ability to discover shared and distinctive mechanisms underlying the evolution of acoustic communication across independent lineages of animals. In addition, the lack of a comprehensive and standardized characterization of their vocal repertoire limits our ability to monitor their populations, study adaptations to the environment, and uncover vocal signal function and what it might reveal about their learning and cognitive abilities. Unprecedented access to acoustic data with corresponding metadata, advances in phylogenetic comparative methods, novel computational approaches for signal characterization, and well-resolved phylogenies make filling this gap achievable. This research will generate a comprehensive understanding of the evolution of toothed whales’ vocal repertoires by involving students in developing and testing hypotheses that integrate phylogenetics and field studies, with novel computational methods for bioacoustics. The contribution of this research program is significant because it will generate novel methods with transferable applications to the study of vocal repertoires and a roadmap for comparisons across independent lineages of animals.
The project will pursue 3 research aims:
(1) Quantitatively generate metrics of toothed whale vocal repertoires, that can be compared across taxa and used to test evolutionary hypotheses;
(2) Elucidate the evolutionary history and rate of evolutionary change of vocal repertoires, and test for evolutionary correlations with sociality and the environment;
(3) Study how ecological factors contribute to vocal repertoire variation using field and experimental approaches
Detain information and resources develop through this project are available in our GitHub Website site:
https://github.com/odontocete-repertoire-project/repertoire_analysis/wiki
The project will pursue 3 research aims:
(1) Quantitatively generate metrics of toothed whale vocal repertoires, that can be compared across taxa and used to test evolutionary hypotheses;
(2) Elucidate the evolutionary history and rate of evolutionary change of vocal repertoires, and test for evolutionary correlations with sociality and the environment;
(3) Study how ecological factors contribute to vocal repertoire variation using field and experimental approaches
Detain information and resources develop through this project are available in our GitHub Website site:
https://github.com/odontocete-repertoire-project/repertoire_analysis/wiki
Publications
- Manali Rege-Colt, Julie N. Oswald, Joelle De Weerdt, Jose David Palacios-Alfaro, Maia Austin, Emma Gagne, Jacqueline Maythé Morán Villatoro, Catherine Teresa Sahley, Gilma Alvarado-Guerra, and Laura J. May-Collado*.2023. Whistle repertoire and structure reflect ecotype distinction of pantropical spotted dolphins in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. Scientific Reports.13:13449
- Antichi, S., Austin, M., May-Collado, L.J., Urban, J. R., Martinez-Aguilar, S., and L. Viloria-Gomora. 2023. Differences in the whistles of two ecotypes of bottlenose dolphins in the Gulf of California. Submitted to Journal of the Acoustical Society of America- Express Letters. https://doi.org/10.1121/10.0019502
- Gagne, E*. Perez-Ortega, B., Hendry, A. P., Melo-Santos, G., Walmsley, S. F., Rege-Colt, M., Austin, M. and L J. May-Collado*.Dolphin communication during widespread systematic noise reduction-a natural experiment amid COVID-19 lockdown. 2022. Frontiers Remote Sensing.
- Melo-Santos, Figueiredo Rodrigues, Hipólito Tardin, Sá Maciel, Marmontel, Da Silva, May-Collado. 2019.The newly described Araguaian river dolphins, Inia araguaiaensis (Cetartyodactyla, Iniidae), produce a diverse repertoire of acoustic signals. PeerJ. https://peerj.com/articles/6670/
- May-Collado, L. J., Agnarsson, I., and D. Wartzok. 2007. Phylogenetic review of tonal sound production in whales in relation to sociality. BMC Evolutionary Biology. 7:136 (Highly accessed).
- May-Collado, L. J., Agnarsson, I., and D. Wartzok. 2007. Reexamining the relationship between body size and tonal signals frequency in whales: a phylogenetic comparative approach. Marine Mammal Science. 23 (3): 524–552.
