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Uncharted Rhythmic Diversity Across the Animal World

Lameira, Adriano ; de Gregorio, Chiara ; Gamba, Marco ; Ota, Nao ; Raimondi, Teresa ; Reber, Stephan A. LU ; Schneider, Jennifer N. and Sauciuc, Gabriela-Alina LU orcid (2026) In Fascinating Life Sciences p.137-154
Abstract
Historically, rhythmic capacities in animals have been systematically studied in few taxa, like fireflies and crickets, while other behaviours have been considered rhythmic but lack de facto rigorous analysis, such as chimpanzee “rain dance”. Emerging fields like animal rhythm often suffer from data scarcity, leading to premature theories that overemphasize limited data and confuse the absence of evidence with evidence of absence. Species are assumed to have negligible or no rhythmic capacities when in fact they have only received negligible or no empirical effort. To understand rhythm behaviour and its evolution across lineages and under different conditions (including along the human lineage), it is therefore crucial that rhythm is... (More)
Historically, rhythmic capacities in animals have been systematically studied in few taxa, like fireflies and crickets, while other behaviours have been considered rhythmic but lack de facto rigorous analysis, such as chimpanzee “rain dance”. Emerging fields like animal rhythm often suffer from data scarcity, leading to premature theories that overemphasize limited data and confuse the absence of evidence with evidence of absence. Species are assumed to have negligible or no rhythmic capacities when in fact they have only received negligible or no empirical effort. To understand rhythm behaviour and its evolution across lineages and under different conditions (including along the human lineage), it is therefore crucial that rhythm is comprehensively described, characterized, and analysed across the widest taxonomic span possible. It is necessary to proactively seek out new, unnoticed and overlooked animal rhythms. This chapter presents a list of everyday animal behaviours that offer intriguing and promising opportunities to study rhythm and synchronization across taxa. Our aim is to invite and guide renewed efforts towards new insights about rhythm and its evolution in the animal world. (Less)
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author
; ; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
host publication
Nature Beats : The What, How and Why of Rhythmic Animal Behaviours - The What, How and Why of Rhythmic Animal Behaviours
series title
Fascinating Life Sciences
editor
Sauciuc, Gabriela-Alina ; Lameira, Adriano R. and Persson, Tomas
pages
18 pages
publisher
Springer
ISSN
2509-6745
2509-6753
ISBN
978-3-032-24249-5
978-3-032-24250-1
DOI
10.1007/978-3-032-24250-1_4
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
d417bea3-b260-4be9-9abf-2f6c0d265ac4
date added to LUP
2026-08-25 10:46:28
date last changed
2026-09-16 11:32:08
@inbook{d417bea3-b260-4be9-9abf-2f6c0d265ac4,
  abstract     = {{Historically, rhythmic capacities in animals have been systematically studied in few taxa, like fireflies and crickets, while other behaviours have been considered rhythmic but lack de facto rigorous analysis, such as chimpanzee “rain dance”. Emerging fields like animal rhythm often suffer from data scarcity, leading to premature theories that overemphasize limited data and confuse the absence of evidence with evidence of absence. Species are assumed to have negligible or no rhythmic capacities when in fact they have only received negligible or no empirical effort. To understand rhythm behaviour and its evolution across lineages and under different conditions (including along the human lineage), it is therefore crucial that rhythm is comprehensively described, characterized, and analysed across the widest taxonomic span possible. It is necessary to proactively seek out new, unnoticed and overlooked animal rhythms. This chapter presents a list of everyday animal behaviours that offer intriguing and promising opportunities to study rhythm and synchronization across taxa. Our aim is to invite and guide renewed efforts towards new insights about rhythm and its evolution in the animal world.}},
  author       = {{Lameira, Adriano and de Gregorio, Chiara and Gamba, Marco and Ota, Nao and Raimondi, Teresa and Reber, Stephan A. and Schneider, Jennifer N. and Sauciuc, Gabriela-Alina}},
  booktitle    = {{Nature Beats : The What, How and Why of Rhythmic Animal Behaviours}},
  editor       = {{Sauciuc, Gabriela-Alina and Lameira, Adriano R. and Persson, Tomas}},
  isbn         = {{978-3-032-24249-5}},
  issn         = {{2509-6745}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{137--154}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Fascinating Life Sciences}},
  title        = {{Uncharted Rhythmic Diversity Across the Animal World}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-24250-1_4}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/978-3-032-24250-1_4}},
  year         = {{2026}},
}