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302obvious that singing is not connected to higher intelligence, and that singing arose indifferent species independently from each other.Singing Rabbit and a Lion Dance:Origin of RhythmThe evolutionary cost of singing is quite high. You must be big and strong tohabitually afford singing-like loud and long vocalizations (like lions, wolves, whales).There is another option if you are a singing lover – you must be able to fly, like avianbirds, or at least, be able to take a quick refuge high on a tree, like gibbons. So, if you arenot big and strong, or cannot fly, of quickly escape high into the trees, you’d better shutup and be as quiet as possible if you want to survive. A singing rabbit would not reach anold age.Living on the trees, our ancestors were on a safer “high floor” of the jungleecosystem. In the trees you can live according to your weight (are you lighter? – you canlive on a “higher floor” or thinner branches and be safe from heavier predators, who canonly hunt on “lower floors” or bigger branches). When our ancestors descended from thetrees and started walking upright, the situation changed drastically. Animals of all sizesand shapes share the space and struggle for existence on the same “ground level”.Colonizing the ground, our ancestors were not big and strong enough to stand against thebig predators like lions, and good climbing trees were not always nearby when needed.So, why on earth would they sing? It is clear that singing would attract predators.Steven Mithen criticized Bjorn Merker’s idea, who suggested that the foundationsof human musical talents were laid when our hominid ancestors started group singing toattract females (Merker, 2000). Mithen argued: “The problem with Merker’s ideas is thatsynchronous calling by hominids in order to attract mates would also attract predators, aswould long-distance calls by lone hominids. We know that hominids on the Africansavanna were competing for carcasses with carnivores, and that they often became theprey themselves. The idea that they would have synchronized their calls to attractwandering females and to deter groups of other hominid males seems most unlikely,especially when the relatively open landscape constrained their ability to escape frompredators by climbing trees. A far more likely strategy for such hominids would havebeen to keep quiet and hope that the prowling carnivores would pass them by (Mithen,1005:207).Merker’s idea of hominid males calling for females is controversial for anotherreason as well. Although singing to attract females is quite widespread in the animalworld, it does not seem to be the main purpose of hominids prehistoric group singing. Insuch species, where males try to attract females by their vocal talents (as Merkersuggests), singing is mostly used in a competitive context between the males (or malegroups), and understandably only males usually sing elaborate songs (which is the case inmost of the avian birds). Among humans both men and women are ardent singers, and infact in many regions of the world group singing and vocal polyphony has survivedprimarilyin women’s repertoire. This fact strongly suggests that singing must have had a