A species that existed hundreds of thousands of years before modern humans, Homo sapiens, has revealed something extraordinary in its fossilized skull, which could lead to a rewrite of evolutionary history.
Using high-resolution CT scans and 3D modeling of the skull of the “other species” known as Neanderthals, a research team led by anthropologist Mercedes Conde-Valverde from the University of Alcala in Spain demonstrated that this species was fully capable of hearing and producing speech-like sounds.
This suggests that we may not be the only species with “exclusive” possession of advanced language as previously thought, according to Science Alert.
As many studies over the past decade have indicated, we, Homo sapiens, also known as modern humans, are just one of the species in the genus Homo, as other species have gone extinct, leaving only modern humans in today’s world.
Among the extinct species, Neanderthals are one of the most notable.
A Neanderthal skull alongside the first person to sequence the genes of this species – Professor Svante Pääbo – (Photo: EL PAIS).
Not only did they coexist with us, interbreed, and leave hybrid bloodlines in our DNA, but they also developed incredible skills in tool-making, daily items, artistic works, rituals, and more.
In the new study, a 3D model of the ear structure of a Neanderthal individual was compared with a corresponding model of Homo sapiens and the “Sima de los Huesos hominin”, an ancestral species.
The research team found that Neanderthals had better hearing in the range of 4-5 kilohertz compared to their ancestors, which allowed them to hear sounds at frequencies close to what modern humans can hear. This capability enabled them to understand each other’s voices.
This finding fills a missing piece from a 2021 study led by anthropologist Rolf Quan from Binghamton University (USA), which also analyzed skulls to show that the bone structures supported the ability to hear and speak.
However, the development of the “tools” necessary for hearing and speaking does not prove they had language.
The essential requirement for language and communication is that they must be able to hear each other’s speech as we do today. The new study has confirmed this.
In fact, the frequencies they could hear also suggest that their speech included consonants, unlike the vocalizations that primarily consist of vowels in non-human primates. Overall, this species could very well have spoken a language similar to English today.
The only missing piece is evidence proving that Neanderthals had the cognitive capacity to create and use language.
Nonetheless, other evidence regarding their larger brains and complex social behaviors in Neanderthal communities supports the hypothesis that they communicated with each other.
“Our results, along with recent discoveries indicating the symbolic behavior of Neanderthals, reinforce the idea that they possessed a form of human language, complex and effective compared to any oral communication system of non-human creatures on the planet,” the authors wrote in Nature Ecology & Evolution.
