Parallels to humans These monkeys call each other by name

A new study has found that common marmosets use specific calls to address each other. According to researchers, there are similarities to humans in the development of their communication.

Common marmosets call each other by name and know when they are being addressed personally - according to a new study by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The non-human primates thus join a very short list of species that exhibit such behavior.

The monkeys use so-called "phee calls" to identify and communicate with each other. According to the scientists, this is a "highly cognitive" behavioral pattern that has previously only been observed in humans, dolphins and elephants.

During the study, the researchers discovered that the common marmosets not only use different calls for different individuals, but are also able to distinguish between calls directed at them and undirected calls.

"This discovery highlights the complexity of social communication among common marmosets," said lead author David Omer. "We found that common marmosets are capable of extremely flexible vocabulary production."

Better communication in the rainforest

For the study, the research team recorded the sounds of common marmosets and analyzed them later. The results were published in the journal "Science ". The tree-dwelling primates are very social animals and live in the rainforests of South America. The phee calls are used for communication when they are out of sight of each other in dense vegetation.

"Common marmosets live in small monogamous family groups and care for their young together, much like humans," said Omer. "These similarities suggest that they faced similar social challenges in evolution as our early pre-linguistic ancestors, which may have led them to develop similar communication methods."

The study results could therefore provide new insights into how human language and social communication may have evolved. "This finding suggests that there were precursors to language development in non-human primates, and we may find evidence of an evolutionary process," says study leader Omer.

Earlier this year, another study found that African elephants may address each other with individual calls similar to the personal names used by humans.