The functional and structural diversity of rhythmic communication across species

Research on the rhythmic communication (RC) of nonhuman animals is undergoing a period of great effervescence and expansion. Here, we synthesize this rapidly growing literature with the aim of mapping RC forms and usage contexts in an unprecedented diversity of taxa, spanning insects, fish, frogs, birds and mammals. We see this as a first large-scale effort toward charting the functional and structural traits of RC in order to identify taxon-specific and shared motifs and, thus, preliminary evolutionary trends. Our synthesis shows that all the covered taxa use RC in reproductive contexts and suggest that RC undergoes an increasing functional complexification as a function of socio-cognitive complexification. By contrast, structural complexity fluctuates less at cross-taxonomic level, such that, at the production level, within each studied class or order, some species exhibit highly complex RC forms and rhythmic coordination, while others exhibit the simplest forms of RC. However, based on the current data, it remains unclear if species with complex RC structures also possess sophisticated RC perception. The chapter also reveals considerable theoretical and methodological heterogeneity in the study of animal RC and the need for cross-talks between taxon-specialized researchers toward harmonizing key terms, concepts and measures to improve data comparability.