Why neanderthals couldnt speak

It was commonly believed that complex language did not evolve until about , years ago and that modern humans were the only ones capable of complex speech. But that changed with the discovery of a Neanderthal hyoid bone in It was found in the Kebara Cave in Israel and is very similar to our own,. Much older hyoid fossils have also recently been discovered, attributed to the human and Neanderthal relative Homo heidelbergensis. They were found in Spain and are over , years old.

These have yet to be modelled, but Prof Wroe said they were likely to be very similar to those of modern humans and Neanderthals, so could take back the origins of speech still further. He added that his work would not necessarily be accepted as proof that Neanderthals spoke. Neanderthals were stockier and shorter than modern humans, with no chin and backwards sloping foreheads.

The speech of modern humans requires a complex co-ordination of breathing muscles in order to vary pitch and produce long sentences. Language is more than just speech and experiments with chimpanzees show that they are able to learn and understand simple sign language. Date: 1. Probably had advanced communication skills and the capability to produce some simple words and communicate to a greater degree than is seen in our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees.

Evidence for this species language ability comes from their fossilised skeletons and from detailed analysis of their tool technology. PET scans highlight areas of the brain that are active during language activities.

A simple tool technology The tools made by Homo ergaster are known as Mode 2 or Acheulian. They are simple and repetitive in design and could have been learnt through imitating the actions of others rather than by spoken language.

Date: , — 28, years ago Where lived: Europe and the Middle East Language ability: relatively advanced language abilities, but evidence suggests that they may have had a limited vocal range compared to modern humans. If this were the case, then their ability to produce complex sounds and sentences would be affected. There has been considerable debate about whether Neanderthals had the capability for fully modern speech.

The Neanderthals Homo neanderthalensis became extinct about 28, years ago and it is often claimed that a reduced language ability compared with modern humans may have been a factor in their extinction. Evidence for and against their language ability is based on analyses of their skeletal remains and the artefacts that they left behind.

Neanderthals left little in the way of symbolic art, an indication that their thought processes, and hence language ability, were unlike that of their modern human contemporaries. Many scientists reached a similar conclusion after comparing Neanderthal vocal tracts to those of modern humans.

It is possible to work out how Neanderthals may have spoken by reconstructing their vocal tracts and then comparing them with those of modern apes and modern humans. Modern apes, such as chimpanzees, have a flat skull base and a high larynx whereas modern humans have an arched skull base and a low larynx. Our low larynx allows room for an extended pharynx and this structure enables us to produce the wide range of sounds we use in speech.

Neanderthal skull bases appear to be less arched than those of modern humans but more arched than those of modern apes. Asked by: Kevin Simpson, Durham The spread of modern humans across Europe is associated with the demise and ultimate extinction of Neanderthal populations 40, years ago, likely due to competition for resources.

Read more: Did humans and Neanderthals interbreed? Could Neanderthals speak? Could we clone a Neanderthal? Never mind that the renaissance was a shift in human viewpoint that grew up in different places, different ways, and different times.

Yet an explosion of human creativity did occur thirty thousand years ago. Once we can put away our need to be tidy, it's clear enough that the Paleolithic revolution could occur only after the communication of technique had gained momentum for a hundred thousand years and finally gone critical.

Our species became homo technologicus when, in the words of Robert Browning, we let the rank tongue blossom into speech. We became sharers of technique. Look at the exquisite carvings of twenty thousand years ago, and you see something more: Through the new agency of speech, technology reached beyond a mere sharing of technique.

Once fueled by speech, it became the manipulation of metaphor and the spilling out of our subconscious. And so it has been ever since. I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston, where we're interested in the way inventive minds work.