TEXT ONE
If you found yourself in a cocktail bar with a Neanderthal man, what would he say? A good conversation is one of the great joys of being human, but it is not clear just how far back in the hominid lineage the ability to use language stretches. The question of when grunts and yelps turned into words and phrases is a tricky one. One way of trying to answer it is to look in the fossil record for evidence about what modern humanitys closest relatives could do.
Svante P bo, of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, and his colleagues have done just that. Dr P bo is an expert in extracting and interpreting the DNA of fossils. As he reports in the latest issue of Current Biology, he and his team have worked their magic on a gene called FOXP2 found in Neanderthal remains from northern Spain. The reason for picking this particular gene is that it is the only one known so far to have a direct connection with speech. In 1990, a family with an inherited speech disorder known as verbal dyspraxia drew the attention of genetics researchers. Those researchers identified a mutation in FOXP2 as the cause of the dyspraxia.
Since then FOXP2 has been the subject of intensive study. It has been linked to the production of birdsong and the ultrasonic musings of mice. It is a conservative type, not changing much from species to species. But it has undergone two changes since humans split from chimpanzees 6m years ago, and some researchers believe these changes played a crucial role in the development of speech and language.
If these changes are common to modern humans and Neanderthals, they must predate the separation of the line leading to Homo sapiens from the one leading to Homo neanderthalensis. Dr P bos research suggests precisely that: the FOXP2 genes from modern humans and Neanderthals are essentially the same. To the extent that the gene enables language, it enables it in both species.
There has been much speculation about Neanderthals ability to speak. They were endowed with a hyoid bone, which anchors the tongue and allows a wide variety of movements of the larynx. Neanderthal skulls also show evidence of a large hypoglossal canal. This is the route taken by the nerves that supply the tongue. As such, it is a requisite for the exquisitely complex movements of speech. Moreover, the inner-ear structure of Homo heidelbergensis, an ancestor of Neanderthals, shows that this species was highly sensitive to the frequencies of sound that are associated with speech.
That Neanderthals also shared with moderns the single known genetic component of speech is another clue that they possessed the necessary apparatus for having a good natter. But suggestive as that is, the question remains open. FOXP2 is almost certainly not the language gene . Without doubt, it is involved in the control and regulation of the motions of speech, but whether it plays a role in the cognitive processes that must precede talking remains unclear jokes about engaging brain before putting mouth in gear notwithstanding. The idea that the forebears of modern humans could talk would scupper the notion that language was the force that created modern human culture otherwise, why would they not have built civilisations? But it would make that chat with a Neanderthal much more interesting.
gre issue写作提纲思路与分析28
GRE写作修辞手法运用及要点
gre issue写作提纲思路与分析41
如何攻克gre写作这个屏障
gre issue写作提纲思路与分析7
gre逻辑作文的考题要认真拟提纲
gre写作制胜诀窍:提高运用和表达能力
gre话题作文"质疑精神"怎么写
gre issue写作提纲思路与分析26
gre issue写作提纲思路与分析44
gre作文Issue高频提纲教育类话题汇总
GRE 写作考试范文7: Museums
gre issue写作提纲思路与分析35
gre写作辅导Issue高频提纲:科技类(上)
gre issue写作提纲思路与分析4
gre issue写作提纲思路与分析24
gre issue写作提纲思路与分析31
GRE 写作考试范文9: A rare Fossil Record
gre issue写作提纲思路与分析3
gre issue写作提纲思路与分析27
gre issue写作提纲思路与分析2
gre写作涉及的话题实例:科学的含义
gre issue写作提纲思路与分析38
gre issue写作提纲思路与分析40
gre写作考试复习技巧:练习题量要规划
GRE 写作考试范文6:The source of Energy
gre issue写作提纲思路与分析19
gre argument15提纲分析汇总
gre issue写作提纲思路与分析15
gre issue写作提纲思路与分析23
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |