ArticleiScience2026
Twice times two: Dual mechanism for double rhythmic meter in orangutans and the evolution of human song.
Article in iScience, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Rhythm and timing in laughter reveal that human vocal plasticity falls on a hominid continuum.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Rhythmic Signaling of Ants and Butterflies With Varying Degrees of Myrmecophily.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Article
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2 authors.
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Abstract
Rhythmic pulse, the division of a beat into subordinate patterns, is the backbone of music. Across the world's musical traditions, the division of the primary beat into two equal parts - "double meter" - represents a prototypical pulse, also found in singing nonhuman primates. The last great ape common ancestor was, however, a non-singing species. How rhythmic pulse evolved in human song and music is, thus, enigmatic. Here, we analyze wild male orangutan long calls, which are structurally isochronous (i.e., with a steady of 1:1 rhythm). Males divided the primary rhythm into 1:2 and 2:1 subordinate patterns and did so by two distinct mechanisms: tempo changes as used by other primates and voiced in-exhale alternations as still used today by some human song traditions. Findings confirm double-meter in a non-singing great ape and suggest the two-phase cycle of the phonatory-respiratory system may have been leveraged for the evolution of human song and music.
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