| Summary: | Descriptive and comparative analyses of temporal measurements taken from continuous spectrographs of humpback whale Megaptera novaeangliae songs and their component themes, phrases and syllables indicate possible coding of information. Predictable relationships occur between the majority of the variable theme durations and total song durations in all the song types (location-year) studied. In contrast to the variable durations of themes and songs, phrases (which are repeated a variable number of times to compose themes) are remarkably stereotyped and may represent the longest stereotyped displays reported in animal communication. Significant differences exist in these phrase durations between subpopulations within an oceanic dialect (e.g., Mexico vs. Hawaii), but differences between individuals of a subpopulation, in phrases, syllables and intervals are specific and not generally reliable. It is proposed that since humpbacks share song format in each location, temporal cues may be utilized in addition to spectral detail of syllables to code information.
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