New discovery about the evolution of language

The study of two ancestors from South Africa showed that the evolution of the middle ear bone determines what they can hear.

The combination of monkey and human traits in the middle ear bone of two extinct ancient genus shows that human ancestors may have begun to evolve the parts that southern gibbons do not have.

Very rare middle ear bone of ancient people - ( Photo: Binghamton / Rolf Quam University)

It is sensitive to the medium frequencies that modern humans use for speaking, according to the PNAS report.

Small bones in the middle ear of Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus show traits in modern humans related to the evolution of language.

The ancient anthropologist Rolf Quam of Binghamton University (USA) interprets that the similarities between the two limbs living in different stages indicate that the important trait is deeply rooted.

It is known that Australopithecu lived 3.3 to 2.1 million years ago, and Paranthropus 1.8 million years ago.

Quam and his colleagues planned to use fossil CT scans and 3D reconstruction of anatomical features of the inner ear bone to determine exactly what kind of sounds people were hearing at the time. .