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(under construction)
(Pg. Olduvai Gorge Volume 4, "The skulls, endocasts and teeth of Homo Habiils" By P.V. Tobias, Cambridge University Press 1991)
(under construction)
Could Homo erectus speak? I believe the evidence says no.
The skull of KNM-WT 15000 displays a more constricted canal for the spinal cord than in humans. ("From Lucy to Language")
Dr. Donald Johanson says this would leave the creature incapable of speaking. (pg 182 "From Lucy to Language")
"I noticed when we found the vertebra," says Walker, "that the canal was too small to contain these nerves. The size of the canal is a lot closer to that in apes than in humans. Not enough nerves were connected to the muscles to control the breath and sustain a sentence." Nariokotome boy was speechless. Thus Homo erectus was very different than modern humans, despite the deceiving human-like appearance of skeletal remains like Nariokotome boy."
- Alan Walker source: Research/Penn State, published by the Vice President for Research. Contents copyright 1998 The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
| There is a hole passing through the center of the vertebrae known as the vertebrae foramen. The size of the vertebrae canal limits the size of the spinal cord. (*double check this)
Studies done on the hightest KNM-WT 15000 (Turkana boy, Nariokotome) vertebrae (from the lower end of the neck)showed the canal was about 1/2 the size of the same bone in modern humans. |
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Tattersall says that the larynx of Homo erectus was moving toward the human position. (pg 541, Encyclopedia of Human evolution, Tattersall)
However if the larynx of Homo erectus is moving, or in an inbetween position, we must stop and think critically about this. Which way is it moving? Is there anyway to tell? Why does everything have to be interpreted in favor of evolution? If it is moving, couldn't it just as easilly be moving away from the human-like position?
If we truly are fallen man, and in the world we have fallen apes wouldn't this be the kind of degeneration a complex ape would go through?
"Within the last decade, however, a number of researchers have begun exploring a new approach to solve this old mystery. The technique, which, for lack of an easier term, may be called paleolaryngology, looks to both comparative anatomy and the fossil record in order to reconstruct the components of our ancestors' vocal tract--the larynx, pharynx, tongue, and associated structures. Unlike scientists who have sought to explain language origins, those of us who trace the evolution of the vocal tract have focused our attention on more specific questions: What was the anatomy of our ancestors' vocal tract, what were its functions, and how did it compare with that of present-day humans?
(The anatomy of human speech. Source: Natural History, Aug 1984 v93 p20(6). Title: The anatomy of human speech. Author: Jeffrey T. Laitman)
We can only work from inferance based on the structure of the basicranium. "...the shape of the basicranium is related to the postion of the larynx in the neck"
(pg 540, Encyclopedia of Human evolution, Tattersall)
"During the course of our investigations, my colleagues and I noticed that the shape of the bottom of the skull, or basicranium, is related to the position of the larynx. This is not surprising, since the basicranium serves as the roof of the upper respiratory tract. To define differences in shape objectively, we solicited the help of our long-time co-worker Raymond Heimbuch, formerly of Yale and now manager of statistical programming at Ortho Pharmaceutical. Together we performed detailed statistical analyses of the shape of the basicranium for many species of mammals. Using these results, we came to the conclusion that two basic skull/larynx configurations exist. In one, the basicranium is fairly flat and is related to a larynx positioned high in the neck. This is the pattern found consistently in all mammals we studied except for older humans. In the second configuration, the basicranium is markedly arched, or flexed, and the corresponding larynx is low in the neck. This pattern is found only in humans after the age of about two years.The discovery of these two distinct configurations in living mammals has given us the tool we need to reconstruct the approximate level of the larynx and associated structures in fossil species, including early hominids (ancestral humans). If, for example, a skull has an essentially flat, or nonflexed, basicranium--like that of a living chimpanzee or monkey--we can reconstruct the position of the larynx high in the neck. Conversely, fossil crania exhibiting the marked flexion of modern adult humans can be reconstructed with a vocal tract like our own. Once the position of the larynx is determined in this manner, we can infer a fossil hominid's breathing, swallowing, and vocalizing patterns."
(The anatomy of human speech. Source: Natural History, Aug 1984 v93 p20(6). Title: The anatomy of human speech. Author: Jeffrey T. Laitman)
A note on the work of Lieberman (1975) that the peripheral structure of the pharynx and larynx (inferred from the basicranium) of Neanderthal limited their speech
(Pg. 836 Olduvai Gorge Volume 4, "The skulls, endocasts and teeth of Homo Habiils" By P.V. Tobias, Cambridge University Press 1991)
Dr. Cuozzo says:
"I was prepared on the night of the debate [with Dr. Alan Mann] to show an overhead that displayed a cephalometric x-ray of one of my female 12 yr. old patients with a very flat cranial base (143) and the Gibraltar I Neanderthal female cephalometric x-ray with a cranial base of 140 degrees. My patient had less cranial flexion than the Neanderthal. The Neanderthals were not supposed to speak according to J. Laitman* because of this flat cranial base which would mean a very high position of the larynx (voice box), he thought. Well, my patient spoke very well and so did all of my other patients near the 140 degree mark.
In addition to that, since Laitman came out with his theory,the Kebara Neanderthal was found in Israel with a normal human hyoid bone, the floating bone in the throat where the infra and supra-hyoid musculature attach. This suggested normal speech too, however the cartilage was not on the hyoid which couldn't survive very long anyway. I don't know why this argument persists for so long except for the fact that there are so many out there who would have Neanderthals be less than human. Dr. Mann is not one of them and I believe he said so in the debate."
(letter from Dr. Cuozzo July 2001)
"This is the question we are now trying to answer. While we have not yet come to a definite conclusion, our preliminary data on the skulls of Homo erectus, hominids that lived some 1.6 million to 300,000 or 400,000 years ago, are providing some intriguing clues. Members of this group have been found in locations as diverse as Lake Turkana in Kenya, Sangiran in Java, and the Choukoutien caves (home of the famous Peking man) in China. It is among some specimens of this species that we have found the first examples of incipient basicranial flexion away from the nonflexed apelike condition of the australopithecines and toward that shown by modern humans. This indicates to us that the larynx in Homo erectus may have begun to descend into the neck, increasing the area available to modify laryngeal sounds."
(The anatomy of human speech. Source: Natural History, Aug 1984 v93 p20(6). Title: The anatomy of human speech.
Author: Jeffrey T. Laitman)
Homo erectus had a larynx that was not yet in the human position. This would limit the sounds erectus could make. More evidence that erectus was not human.
But for erectus, baby talk may have lasted a lifetime.""Like most mammals, erectus and modern human children are born with high larynx's. This restricts the sounds thay can make causing what we call baby talk. Modern chldren grow out of it. At age 2 the childs larynx moves lower in the throat clearing room for the muscles that make adult speech.
"Man - who are we?" Discovery program
If erectus were human we would expect to see evidence of speech, such as that seen in Neanderthals (hyoid ect).
Though capable of some communicating such as that in monkeys, making ape like grunts there is no evidence that erectus could speak as we humans do.
"What was the anatomy of our ancestors' vocal tract, what were its functions, and how did it compare with that of present-day humans?"
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