Although culture is often considered to be passed on through social learning, there are species-typical constraints to cultural diversity that could have genetic origins. By studying the establishment of socially learned birdsong in an island colony of naive zebra finches with a song much different from wild type, it is now revealed that over as few as 3–4 generations the tutored song approaches that of the wild type. Thus, species-typical song culture can develop de novo, giving insight into language change and evolution in humans.
- Olga Fehér
- Haibin Wang
- Ofer Tchernichovski