Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40594158›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2025

Birds combined calls more than 11 million years ago.

Ambre Salis, Robin J Ryder, Axel Molina, Philippe Schlenker, Emmanuel Chemla

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Ambre SalisDépartement d'Etudes Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Institut Jean-Nicod (ENS - EHESS - CNRS), PSL University, Paris, France. salis.ambre87@gmail.com.
Robin J RyderDepartment of Mathematics, Imperial College London, London, UK.
Axel MolinaDépartement d'Etudes Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Institut Jean-Nicod (ENS - EHESS - CNRS), PSL University, Paris, France.
Philippe SchlenkerDépartement d'Etudes Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Institut Jean-Nicod (ENS - EHESS - CNRS), PSL University, Paris, France.
Emmanuel ChemlaDépartement d'Etudes Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, LSCP (ENS - EHESS - CNRS), PSL University, Paris, France.

Funding

Agence Nationale de la Recherche ANR-17-EURE-0017CNRS-MITI Défi 80|PrimeHORIZON EUROPE European Research Council 788077UK Research and Innovation EP/Z002508/1
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Multiple members of the tit and chickadee (= Parid) family combine two classes of calls, F and D, in a rigid order FD. In Japanese tits, FD has been argued on the basis of multiple experiments to involve syntax and non-trivial compositionality. How ancient are these call combinations? We show that FD combinations (as well as individual F and D calls) are present in nearly all Parid species, and almost absent in their closest relatives, the Remizidae and Stenostiridae. Using phylogenetic tools and ancestral reconstruction methods, we infer that FD combinations very likely emerged between 11 and 26 million years ago in the eastern Himalayas. This result contributes to evolutionary animal linguistics using a comparative phylogenetic approach to reconstruct the evolution of call combinations.

Indexed as

BirdsPasseriformesVocalization, AnimalAnimalsBiological EvolutionPhylogenyAncestral signalsAnimal communicationCombinationEvolutionMobbingSyntax

Identifiers

PMID40594158
PMCPMC12215849

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY
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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.