If it quacks like a duck: The by-product account of music still stands.
Debra LiebermanJoseph BillingsleyPublished in: The Behavioral and brain sciences (2021)
Discerning adaptations from by-products is a defining feature of evolutionary science. Mehr, Krasnow, Bryant, and Hagen posit that music is an adaptation that evolved to function as a credible signal. We counter this claim, as we are not convinced they have dispelled the possibility that music is an elaboration of extant features of language.