We humans may not understand their alarm calls, but the meerkats do, when fellow meerkats warn each other of an imminent danger. Researchers from Switzerland and South Africa say, the animals usually make ‘linear’ sounds. But about 20 per cent of their calls become complex to make the vocal sound ‘non-linear’. These ‘non-linear’ sounds are the alarm calls that Simon Townsend from the University of Zurich and others studied.

All we can say, if you ever chance upon the meerkats, make sure you listen carefully. They may just be alarming others about you!

A tiny stout monkey

We don’t have any idea what the monkey was doing at the underwater cave. In any case, the scientists have retrieved the fossil of a tiny monkey from the cave in the Dominican Republic. The experts think the monkey was around about 3000 years ago; that’s nothing compared to the age of the other extinct animals that roamed on this planet. However, the monkey species itself could be very ancient.

Dr Alfred Rosenberger of Brooklyn College in New York, led the examination of the creature’s bones. The results of the study have been published in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B. Dr Rosenberger informs that the bones, which included a skull that was almost complete, were found by a team of scuba divers who were exploring the underwater cave in the area. The bones were then retrieved last October.

 According to Dr Rosenberger, the monkey is only the second specimen of the species Antillothrix bernensis ever found. It possibly measured about 30 cm from head to toe. But the shape of the legs came as a surprise to the scientists. “Its thigh bone was very thick. So it had sort of stout legs, which is something we didn’t expect,” Dr Rosenberger says.