Previous studies of the vocalisation frequencies of mammals have suggested that it is either body mass or environment that drives these frequencies. Using 193 species across the globe from the terrestrial and aquatic environments and a model selection approach, we identified that the best supported model for minimum and maximum frequencies for vocalisation included both body mass and environment. The minimum frequencies of vocalisations of species from all environments retained the influence of body mass. For maximum frequency however, aquatic species are released from such a trend with body mass having little constraint on frequencies. Surprisingly, phylogeny did not have a strong impact on the evolution of the maximum frequency of mammal vocalisations, largely due to the pinniped species divergence of frequency from their carnivoran relatives. We demonstrate that the divergence of signal frequencies in mammals has arisen from the need to adapt to their environment.

Mammalian Vocalisation Frequency DataMinimum and maximum frequencies of vocalisation for mammalian species, gathered from the literature. Body mass data was obtained from the PanTHERIA database by Jones et al. (2009).Mammalian Vocalisation Data_Martin et al.xlsx