Baby marmosets imitate parents’ sounds
First evidence of a primate other than humans using vocal feedback to shift from cries to adult communication
CALL ME New research suggests that marmoset babies, like the one shown here with its mother, learn to make communication sounds known as “phees” by getting vocal feedback from their parents. Marmosets share a neural program for early vocal learning with songbirds and humans, investigators suspect.
Iuliia Timofeeva/shutterstock
Small monkeys with white tufts of ear hair and long, striped tails may reveal some surprising new insights into how human infants learn to make speech sounds.