Auditory thresholds compatible with optimal speech reception likely evolved before the human-chimpanzee split
In a new study published in Nature Scientific Reports, researchers from Dresden, Jena and South Kensington systematically measure and compare sound transmission characteristics of humans and chimpanzees.
Have you ever wondered why chimpanzees, our genetically closest living relatives, can't speak? Our latest research suggests that, evolutionarily seen, it is not due to the shape and function of the outer and middle ear. For the first time, we have systematically measured the transmission of sound from the eardrum to the inner ear in great apes. The project is a collaboration between the Ear Research Center Dresden (ERCD) at Universitätsklinikum Carl Gustav Carus (Technische Universität Dresden) with the Institute of Zoology and Evolutionary Research (Jena), the Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and the Natural History Museum (South Kensington).
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