Neanderthals May Have Had Gene for Speech

HERE is an article from the NYT today about the aforementioned topic.

Neanderthals, an archaic human species that dominated Europe until the arrival of modern humans some 45,000 years ago, possessed a critical gene known to underlie speech, according to DNA evidence retrieved from two individuals excavated from El Sidron, a cave in northern Spain.

The new evidence stems from analysis of a gene called FOXP2 which is associated with language. The human version of the gene differs at two critical points from the chimpanzee version, suggesting that these two changes have something to do with the fact that people can speak and chimps cannot.

It's a two-page article, they go into neurological changes and a lot about DNA.

that is very cool, all though not very surprising since Neanderthals had at least on some level a concept of religion/spirtual belief as evidenced by their treatment of the deed, e.g. burials with flowers, etc. This indirectly indicates they had to be able to convey abstract thoughts.

There was a study done in the late nineties (there was a TV program about it) that shows that the neanderthal may have been capable of speech although it was higher in pitch than normal humans and was not as varied as humans but it is possible and quite likely that they could communicate through some form of speech.


G

Two words of caution here:

1. FOXP2 is not the only gene involved in speech, even in your link, it says:

There is no reason to think Neanderthals couldn’t speak like humans with respect to FOXP2, but obviously there are many other genes involved in language and speech,” Dr. Paabo said

2. There is always a problem of contamination with extraneous modern human DNA. The researchers attempted to use mitochondrial DNA to create a ratio as a measure of contamination but have to take into account different mutation rates of mitochondrial and human somatic cell DNA. Techniques such as the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), used to amplify the numbers of short DNA segments is plagued with the possibility of DNA contamination.

However, apart from these two reservations, I think that it is quite interesting.

A while back they found a Neanderthal hyoid bone, which is the key physical component necessary for speech. I think it is entirely possible that they spoke, how else could they communicate to organize hunts and such?

reply to post by Heronumber0


I hear you, I doubt they sounded like we do, I kind of picture grunting like apes do and maybe a crude language based on symbols they've agreed on...


[edit on 20-10-2007 by anhinga]

Kleverone already started a thread on this here.