Evolution and humans; hominin hearing (Evolution)

by David Turell , Tuesday, September 29, 2015, 13:49 (3341 days ago) @ David Turell

Guessing at hearing range with hominin fossils it seems their hearing was between human and chimp, what one would expect:-http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/44119/title/Early-Hominin-Hearing/-"Quam and an international team of researchers studied the anatomy of the ear in three complete fossilized specimens, as well as several partial specimens, from South Africa. The team reconstructed the size and relative proportions of up to six different structures—such as the stapes, a middle ear bone—using 3-D CT scans. The researchers then used a published model to predict how the early hominins may have heard, based on these measurements.-"Both species of early hominin evolved an anatomy that allowed them to hear sounds at slightly higher frequencies than chimpanzees, best in the 1.0 kHz to 3.5 kHz range. In comparison, chimpanzees can hear sounds best between 1.0 kHz and 3.0 kHz. Humans can typically hear sounds best between 1.0 kHz and 4.5 kHz; this range encompasses most sounds formed in spoken language.-“'[The early hominins] didn't hear as well as humans, and they are more like chimps,” Quam told The New York Times."