Doesn't surprise me at all. Neandertal was much closer to Cro-Magnon than
has been admitted in the past. Neanthertal diorama construction left the
impression of a hulking brute which subsequent study has proved not to be
the case.
Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
and do not rely on your own insight.. Pr. 3:5
Ron Chitwood
chitw@flash.net
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From: Glenn Morton <Glenn.Morton@oryx-usa.com>
To: asa@calvin.edu; evolution@calvin.edu
Subject: Neanderthal speech
Date: Tuesday, April 28, 1998 7:09 AM
There is a report in today's New York Times entitled "New findings suggest
Neanderthals Had Gift of Speech". It can be found at
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/sci-human-speech.html
The article reports a study of the nerves going to the tongue. They
studied the hypoglossal canals of apes, australopithecines, archaic Homo
sapiens, Neanderthal, and modern man, and found that by the time one gets
to Kabwe man, 400 kyr ago, the hypoglossal canal was modern in size.
While the article does not go into this, one thought which occurs to me is
that Kabwe was most likely not the first person with language. Language
may have been gradually different the further one goes back. This would
take the view that language, the usefulness of language, acted to produce
strong selection pressure on better speakers, thus acting to select for
individuals with larger hypoglossal canals.
I would say that this study strongly supports what I have been contending
for the past few years, that spiritual mankind has been on this planet for
a long, long time. This study would also weaken support for views which
place the origin of spiritual man and thus language, at either 40 kyr or
100 kyr ago. This also weakens the concept that the image of God somehow
resides in the anatomically modern human form. Someone who looked quite a
bit different from us, 400 kyr ago apparently had the nerves for speech.
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