Researchers say marmoset monkeys call each other name, similar to how humans recognize each other. The 20-cm-long primates are native to South America. Scientists the Hebrew University Jerusalem studied the social interaction 10 marmosets. The research team discovered that the animals used unique calls other monkeys their group. Dr David Omer, co-author the study, said marmosets are the first non-human primates known to use names. The researchers put the marmosets a variety of pairings. They then used artificial intelligence to analyze more than 50,000 monkey calls. This allowed the scientists to determine the animals had names each other.
Dr Omer believes the findings could shed light how human language evolved. He said: "Until quite recently, people thought that human language was a singular phenomenon that popped of nothing. We're starting to see evidence that this is not the case." Omer postulated how marmosets developed a system name calling. He said: "Marmosets live small, monogamous family groups, and take care their young together, much humans do. These similarities suggest that they faced comparable evolutionary social challenges to our early pre-linguistic ancestors." Other creatures known to identify others their group name are dolphins and elephants.
