Abstract
Hominid fossil evidence and genetic data show that the evolution of cognitive and language capacities found in modern humans is not the result of massive mutations. Instead, since the split of the genus Pan from the genus Homo, a gradual cognitive and linguistic evolution seems to have taken place. The cranial capacity, which presumably correlates with cognitive capacity, systematically increased in the human lineage, if both special groups Homo floresiensis and H. Paranthropus are not considered. Numerous external and intrinsic factors may have triggered the cognitive evolution, whereas social factors seem to have played a significant role. It is concluded that the evolution of the biological disposition of language (BDL) co-occurred with the evolution of other cognitive capacities and is based on gradual mutations.
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Notes
- 1.
mtDNA is in most species, including humans, inherited from the mother. It is located in mitochondria, structures that convert the chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use and can be regarded as the smallest chromosome.
- 2.
Chimpanzees are great apes and they belong to the genus Pan as do Bonobos, also called pygmy chimpanzees ( Pan paniscus).
- 3.
The increase of the brain size resulted in some drawbacks. Human infants seem to be born premature when considering the typical correlation between brain size and gestation period. Compared to other primates, the human gestation period would be 17 months instead of 9 months. The brain growth in human infants slows down only one year after birth, that is, human gestation lasts 21 months.
- 4.
It is still today unclear whether the species “hobbit” (H. floresiensis), which had a brain volume of ca. 400 cc, should be regarded as a new species or a case of pathology such as microcephaly (e.g., Brown et al., 2004; Falk et al. 2005; Holloway et al. 2006). Although it appears as a form of microcephaly, the small hobbit brain seems not to fall in the category of microcephaly as defined today. This is supported by the fact that their body mass index (BMI) is comparable to modern humans. Also, the comparison of the LB1 endocast with great apes, H. erectus, and Australopithecus, modern humans, pygmy and microcephalic modern human indicates that LB1’s brain shape resembles that of H. erectus (expanded frontal and temporal lobe), although with respect to the brain size it is more comparable to an Australopithecus. H. floresiensis seems therefore to be a separate species, which is closely related to H. erectus. Although the brain size of LB1 was small, the cortical structure was presumably advanced.
- 5.
Other terms used for the recent single-origin hypothesis are “Recent African Origin model” and “Replacement Hypothesis.”
- 6.
The rate of DNA decay is largely temperature dependent. However, recent calculations indicate that DNA can be longer preserved than previously assumed. Allentoft et al. (2012) reported that frozen DNA (− 5°C) has a half-time of up to 158,000 years, i.e., it would last ca. 6.8 million years. At ca. 13°C, they found a half-time of 521 years for Moa bones, 400 times longer than lab tests predict. (Moa is an extinct wingless bird, which lived in New Zealand up to 1400 AD.)
- 7.
Of course, we compare today’s chimpanzees (including genes and cranial capacity) with hominid species, but not with those chimpanzees that split from the human lineage about 4 mya. It is implied that the evolution of the chimpanzee lineage was relatively limited although this conclusion may be premature.
- 8.
A wide range of fossil findings are comparable to the discovery of the Dutch anthropologist Eugène Dubois’ in 1891 on Java, who named the fragment of a skull “Pithecanthropus erectus” (upright ape-man). While there is today no doubt that the Java man belongs to the genus Homo, today anthropologists prefer to use the term “Homo erectus” exclusively for hominids found on Java. Depending on the regions of the fossils discovery, terms such as Homo georgicus (Dmanisi, Georgia), H. soloensins (Ngandong, Java), H. pekinensis (Peking/Beijing, China) are used. The African variant of the H. erectus is typically called H. ergaster.
- 9.
The “foramen magnum” refers to the hole in the skull, where the spine enters.
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Hillert, D. (2014). The Human Lineage. In: The Nature of Language. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0609-3_1
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