Re: Language evolution in early hominids?
Phil Nicholls (pnich@globalone.net)
Sat, 25 Nov 1995 09:18:15 GMT
jamesb@hgu.mrc.ac.uk raged:
>jthurb@aol.com (JTHURB) wrote:
>>Suggest you get a copy of THE APE THAT SPOKE by John McCrone.
>>
>Here here! It's a stunning book. It also helped convince me of AAT
>because some of the things that John McCrone says in it are very close to
>some things that Elaine Morgan says about the descent of the larynx, and
>John McCrone isn't pro-AAT.
Most of what Morgan says about the larynx is common knowledge.
However, if the descended larynx is an adaptation to diving as she
claims then it seems to be that human infants lacking a descended
larynx would be in trouble.
Morgan also ignores the reconstruction of the position of the larynx
by Liebermann and Crelin in neandertals. If there reconstruction is
correct then neadertals did not have a descended larynx. In fact, the
position of the larynx results in an enlargement of the nasopharygeal
cavity which gives Homo sapiens the ability to produce a wide range of
speech sounds -- sounds other animals cannot make.
Phil Nicholls pnich@globalone.net
"To ask a question you must first know most of the answer"
-Robert Sheckley
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