Marlen Fröhlich

Marlen Fröhlich is a Research Fellow at the Department of Palaeoanthropology within the Faculty of Science at Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen. As a primatologist, she leads the Volkswagen Foundation-funded 'Pathways to Language' project (2022-2028) investigating communicative plasticity in joint action coordination. Her research examines the evolution of human language through comparative studies of great ape communication, with fieldwork conducted across multiple sites studying chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans.

Her primary research explores:

• Multimodal communication development in primates
• Plasticity in gestural and vocal signaling
• Infant-directed communication patterns
• Cross-species comparisons of communicative behaviors
• Environmental influences on communication systems

Analysis of her 15 most recent publications (2022-2025) reveals strong emphasis on:

• Individual variation in primate communication
• Multimodal signal integration
• Captive versus wild behavior comparisons
• Maternal investment strategies
• Evolutionary pathways to language

Significant scientific awards include:

• Freigeist Fellowship, Volkswagen Foundation (2022-2028)
• DFG Research Fellowship (2018-2021)
• Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard Foundation Stipend (2020-2022)
• PhD Thesis Award, German Primate Center (2016)
• Erhard Höpfner Award for Master's thesis (2012)

She coordinates the Palaeoanthropology lab's research activities and maintains collaborations with field sites studying wild populations of great apes. Current work focuses on understanding how communicative plasticity facilitates coordination in joint action tasks.