Evidence from sperm whale clans of symbolic marking in non-human cultures

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Main Authors: Hersh, Taylor A., Gero, Shane, Rendell, Luke, Cantor, Mauricio, Weilgart, Lindy, Amano, Masao, Dawson, Stephen M., Slooten, Elisabeth, Johnson, Christopher M., Kerr, Iain
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: culture; symbolic markers; bioacoustics; distribution; sperm whales; ddc:570; Pacific; Pillar; Sperm whale
• Online Access: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:352-2-1kw0f1y3yoqys8; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201692119

Culture, a pillar of the remarkable ecological success of humans, is increasingly recognized as a powerful force structuring nonhuman animal populations. A key gap between these two types of culture is quantitative evidence of symbolic markers-seemingly arbitrary traits that function as reliable ind...