An important topic in the evolution of language is the kinds of grammars that can be computed by humans and other animals. Fitch and Hauser (F&H; 2004) approached this question by assessing the ability of different species to learn 2 grammars, (AB)(n) and A(n) B(n) . A(n) B(n) was taken to indicate a phrase structure grammar, eliciting a center-embedded pattern. (AB)(n) indicates a grammar whos...

Cooperation among non-human animals has been the topic of much theoretical and empirical research, but few studies have examined systematically the effects of various reward payoffs on cooperative behaviour. Here, we presented heterosexual pairs of cooperatively breeding cottontop tamarins with a cooperative problem solving task. In a series of four experiments, we examined how the tamarins' co...

Humans, but no other animal, make meaningful use of spoken language. What is unclear, however, is whether this capacity depends on a unique constellation of perceptual and neurobiological mechanisms or whether a subset of such mechanisms is shared with other organisms. To explore this problem, parallel experiments were conducted on human newborns and cotton-top tamarin monkeys to assess their a...

Should captive animals be excluded from phylogenetic, morphological or behavior studies as they are “atypical” and do not represent the natural state? [1]. Domestication has been associated with paedomorphosis, with alterations of appearance including facial “simplification,” subcutaneous fat accumulation [2]. Brain and body size and character are altered [3]. Genetic variability is reduced [3]...

A^^Sl " ^5"^ '' ' ^'^'"^ ^"'^' '"^''^^ "«"«^i•^ disease of captive South A•• marmosets and tamarins (Callitrichidae), including the endangered goWen lion ta mann. A common-source outbreak of CH in golden lion tamarins and pygmy marmosets at a US zoo resulted from a single feeding of the primates with newborn mice in^ppLnTirSei wkh tymphocyttc chonomeningitis virus (LCMV). Isolates from livers o...