Figure 1. Conserved evolutionary processes and developmental plasticity.

A. Organismal form (PPhn=Physical Phenotypes) can vary dramatically based on minor adjustments in regulatory processes (IRP=Intracellular Regulatory Processes) that determine the expression of protein-coding genes, which are often themselves highly conserved (CGP=Conserved Genetic Processes) as toolkits shared across widely different taxa. Evolution can thus produce vast differences in species in relatively few generations, maintaining a core of conserved genetic processes across all of them.

B. Similarly, we argue, communicative capabilities (CPhn=Communicative Phenotypes) in a variety of non-humans can vary substantially within generation based on exposure to differing human training (CRP=Cultural Regulatory Processes), which appears to exploit cognitive systems that are highly conserved across many species (CCS=Conserved Cognitive Systems) to produce a variety of potential “language-approximating” phenotypes. Different modern human languages can also be thought of as different phenotypes, determined by cultural regulation. However, mature languages share a wide variety of “design features” around the world, although these features are not generally shared with nonhumans in the wild. Fig. 2B portrays the phenotypic plasticity seen across many species in response to human enculturation.