American zoologists and herpetologists during the past 50 years have successfully deciphered the mating calls of frogs and toads with ever increasing precision and sophistication. However, the vocalizations most commonly termed “rain calls”, which typically occur beyond both normal breeding seasons and breeding sites, have remained a persistent puzzle. This article traces the gradual disappearance of rain calls, along with a corresponding decline in any mention of emotional states, from herpetological studies of anuran vocalizations in the United States from the middle of the twentieth century to the present and examines the historical roots of this disappearance. This evaporation of rain calls is indicative of a much larger change in the scientific climate of the times, involving the transition from traditional natural history to the neo-Darwinian, adaptationist paradigm of contemporary biology. Rain calls thus increasingly became anomalous, thereby eliminating a possibly fruitful line of inquiry in the comparative study of human–animal communication, in this case with evolution's earliest vocalizers. The contours and benefits of a more encompassing paradigm, envisioned by some leading early twentieth-century zoologists, are briefly discussed.
...More
Book
Schulkin, Jay;
(2005)
Curt Richter: A Life in the Laboratory
(/isis/citation/CBB000600030/)
Article
Gillaspy, James Arthur, Jr.;
Brinegar, Jennifer L.;
Bailey, Robert E.;
(2014)
Operant Psychology Makes a Splash---In Marine Mammal Training (1955--1965)
(/isis/citation/CBB001420017/)
Book
Vicedo, Marga;
(2013)
The Nature and Nurture of Love: From Imprinting to Attachment in Cold War America
(/isis/citation/CBB001213142/)
Article
Vicedo, Marga;
(2009)
Mothers, Machines, and Morals: Harry Harlow's Work on Primate Love from Lab to Legend
(/isis/citation/CBB000932850/)
Article
John Block Friedman;
(2022)
A bonnacon’s defensive tactics in medieval natural history
(/isis/citation/CBB325187938/)
Article
Pearson, Chris;
(2013)
Dogs, History, and Agency
(/isis/citation/CBB001202107/)
Book
Weber, Bruce H.;
Depew, David J.;
(2003)
Evolution and Learning: The Baldwin Effect Reconsidered
(/isis/citation/CBB001250184/)
Article
Shaw, Stephanie D.;
Skerratt, Lee F.;
Haigh, Amanada;
Bell, Ben D.;
Daglish, Lisa;
Bishop, Phillip J.;
Summers, Rachel;
Moreno, Virginia;
Melzer, Sabine;
Ohmer, Michel;
Herbert, Sarah;
Gleeson, Dianne;
Rowe, Lucy;
Speare, Richard;
(2013)
The Distribution and Host Range of Batrachochytrium Dendrobatidis in New Zealand, 1930--2010
(/isis/citation/CBB001421425/)
Article
Dewsbury, Donald A.;
(2009)
Samuel Fernberger's Rejected Doctoral Dissertation: A Neglected Resource for the History of Ape Research in America
(/isis/citation/CBB000931964/)
Article
Rose, Anne C.;
(2012)
Animal Tales: Observations of the Emotions in American Experimental Psychology, 1890--1940
(/isis/citation/CBB001211209/)
Article
Pettit, Michael;
(2010)
The Problem of Raccoon Intelligence in Behaviourist America
(/isis/citation/CBB001023005/)
Article
Clement Levallois;
(2018)
The Development of Sociobiology in Relation to Animal Behavior Studies, 1946–1975
(/isis/citation/CBB162818555/)
Book
Jeff Karnicky;
(2016)
Scarlet Experiment: Birds and Humans in America
(/isis/citation/CBB488937827/)
Thesis
Braitman, Laurel;
(2013)
Animal Madness: A Natural History of Disorder
(/isis/citation/CBB001567524/)
Article
Evan Arnet;
(2019)
Conwy Lloyd Morgan, Methodology, and the Origins of Comparative Psychology
(/isis/citation/CBB156167583/)
Article
Munz, Tania;
(2005)
The Bee Battles: Karl von Frisch, Adrian Wenner and the Honey Bee Dance Language Controversy
(/isis/citation/CBB000670733/)
Article
Feder, Helena;
(2010)
Introduction
(/isis/citation/CBB001023609/)
Article
Rapchan, Eliane Sebeika;
(2012)
Cultura e inteligência: reflexões antropológicas sobre aspectos não físicos da evolução em chimpanzés e humanos
(/isis/citation/CBB001420597/)
Thesis
Munz, Tania;
(2007)
Of Birds and Bees: Karl von Frisch, Konrad Lorenz and the Science of Animals,1908--1973
(/isis/citation/CBB001561473/)
Article
Dewsbury, Donald A.;
(2002)
The Role of Evidence in Interpretations of the Scientific Work of Karl Lashley
(/isis/citation/CBB000202773/)
Be the first to comment!