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Scientists found rhythm in lemur songs. It may help illuminate origins of speech : Short Wave There's a lot for scientists to learn about the origins of humans' musical abilities. In the last few years, though, they've discovered homo sapiens have some company in our ability to make musical rhythm. That's why today, producer Berly McCoy brings the story of singing lemurs. She explains how their harmonies could help answer questions about the beginnings of humans' musical abilities, and what all of this has to do with Queen.

Short Wave

Move over Beatles, Lemurs are here with music lessons

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Aaron Scott

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Move over Beatles, Lemurs are here with music lessons

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An indri—a species of lemur in Madagascar—sings from a tree branch. Filippo Carugati hide caption

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Filippo Carugati

An indri—a species of lemur in Madagascar—sings from a tree branch.

Filippo Carugati

There's a lot for scientists to learn about the origins of humans' musical abilities. In the last few years, though, they've discovered homo sapiens have some company in our ability to make musical rhythm. That's why today, producer Berly McCoy brings the story of singing lemurs. She explains how their harmonies could help answer questions about the beginnings of humans' musical abilities, and what all of this has to do with Queen. (encore)

Listen to Short Wave on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.

This episode was produced by Berly McCoy, edited by Gisele Grayson and fact checked by Katherine Sypher. The audio engineer was Josh Newell.