杏吧原创

OUR australopith ancestors heard their world differently from modern humans.

at Binghamton University in New York State and colleagues have discovered rare middle ear bones from two extinct southern African hominins 鈥� Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus. A combination of ape-like and human-like features in the bones indicate some australopiths lacked sensitivity to the midrange frequencies that modern humans use for speech (PNAS, DOI: ).

鈥淎nthropologists are in general agreement that these early hominins likely did not possess spoken language,鈥� says Quam 鈥� the new findings back that claim.

This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淓arly ancestors had shoddy hearing鈥�