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Whoops! the correct Twitter handle for Prof Julia Fischer is @julxf ! (thanks to JulFX for correcting)

And now, on my YouTube Channel, some music for a hot summer's day: My setting of "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day" by William Shakespeare. Music composed and performed by Tecumseh Fitch w/ Alex Alexander (drums) & John Bailey (horns) youtu.be/ww0oe-zj34M via YouTube

Sad news: Lila Gleitman has passed away...

Exciting new study in Science from Mirjam Knörnschild lab: Baby bats babble! And their babbling shows remarkable parallels with that of human babies: reduplication, rhythmicity, universality, etc. Sometimes when mom's around, sometimes not. Here's a news story: sciencenews.org/article/baby-g…

Here's the Science article by Mirjam Knörnschild for those with access to Science: Babbling in a vocal learning bat resembles human infant babbling science.sciencemag.org/content/373/65…

And finally... the last video from the #CogSci2021 Opening Ceremony - Awards presented by Kevin Gluck and Nick Chater youtu.be/S_SR4ihto0g via YouTube !

Why do some species learn their vocalizations while others do not? In the second paper, with Samantha Carouso Peck and Tecumseh Fitch we take a broad comparative approach and propose specific ways in which VL is adaptive.royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rs…

Thanks to the awesome @protolang7 organizers, my talk on the potential link between the aesthetic appeal of linguistic features and language learning can now be watched on Youtube. Check it out! 🎥🎞️💫youtube.com/watch?v=rAEf6f…

Our paper "Phylogenetic signal in the vocalizations of vocal learning and vocal non-learning birds" is now available (*open access*) in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rs… We show that there are strong genetic constraints on bird song (1).

We calculate acoustic distances, based on multiple measures of song, and show that they correlate with phylogenetic distances calculated from genes. This shows that even when learning plays a crucial role, genetics still matter! (2) royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rs…

Do dogs understand object permanence? The tails say it all... 😂 i.imgur.com/20NoYS8.gifv

The Austrian Science Fund has released a short "video portrait" about me and my research on bioacoustics, animal cognition and music evolution. It's available at this link and features some up close and personal time with kune kune pigs and ravens: scilog.fwf.ac.at/en/videos/what…

Cranial volume is reduced in domestic cats compared to wild ancestors. But no reduction in snout length.🐱 I've been working on this project since 2017 and am SUPER excited to share! doi.org/10.1098/rsos.2… #CatsOnTwitter #AcademicChatter

Our new paper in Royal Society Open Science shows that cat's brains decreased in size with domestication. We directly compared skulls of domestic cats with those of their wild ancestor, the African wild cat Felis lybica. Led by the indomitable Raffaela Lesch, PhD !

1. Our new paper in Science Magazine found that all 43 species of nonhuman primate we examined possess "vocal membranes": small ribbon-like extensions of the vocal folds. These allow loud, high-pitched calls, but make chaotic nonlinearities more common. science.org/doi/epdf/10.11…

2. Humans lack vocal membranes, meaning that we lost them in the last 6 million years of hominin evolution. We think this enables humans to have a more stable voice source, important for fine control of pitch in speech and song. Sometimes "less is more"! science.org/doi/epdf/10.11…

Nice new study from Gabriel Jorgewich-Cohen and colleagues documenting vocalization in many turtles, caecilians, tuataras and lungfish: Shared roots of acoustic communication in vertebrates: science.org/content/articl…

I've just released a new music video "No More A Roving" with lyric by Lord Byron and music by Tecumseh Fitch. Just in time for the waning Wolf Moon... Alex Alexander (drums), Gary Schreiner (accordian), Barry Hartglass (bass). youtu.be/z-WcdtNSsWY via YouTube

If you don't know about Hoover the amazing talking seal - orphaned and raised by a Maine fisherman - our "Quick Guide" is a great way to find out more: authors.elsevier.com/a/1gTWc3QW8R~f…

Do you love Paul McCartney? If so you'll love this song by Eric Nicolas written in honour of Sir Paul's recent birthday: Song For Sir Paul - eric nicolas (official music video) youtu.be/BjQjLUkBZMg via YouTube