Lameira Adriano R
ApeTank, Department of Psychology University of Warwick Coventry UK.
Ecol Evol. 2025 Apr 3;15(4):e71241. doi: 10.1002/ece3.71241. eCollection 2025 Apr.
The evolution of speech remains one of the most profound and unresolved questions in science. Despite significant advancements in comparative research, key assumptions about the evolutionary precursors of speech continue to be accepted with minimal scrutiny. One such assumption is the widely held belief that vocal learning-the ability to imitate and modify vocalizations-was an obligatory precondition for speech evolution. However, by the time ape-like human ancestors emerged amid Miocene's forests, the ancestors of vocal learning species already walked the Earth and flew the skies. A head-start of millions of years of vocal evolution didn't produce linguistic elephants, bats, or birds, suggesting that hominids' humble vocal beginnings were determinant for verbal evolution. Current evidence on extant great ape calls provides new details and insight into the extinct vocal forms and functions that allowed human ancestors to jump-start speech evolution. By reconsidering the evolutionary processes that led to speech, this paper advocates for a shift in focus toward the hominid biotope, body, brain, and behavior, rather than treating speech as the pinnacle endpoint of vocal learning evolution and drawing misleading parallels with far-related vocal learners.
语言的进化仍然是科学领域中最深刻且尚未解决的问题之一。尽管在比较研究方面取得了重大进展，但关于语言进化前身的关键假设仍在几乎没有严格审查的情况下被接受。其中一个这样的假设是，广泛持有的观点认为，发声学习——模仿和改变发声的能力——是语言进化的必要先决条件。然而，在中新世森林中出现类猿人类祖先的时候，发声学习物种的祖先已经在地球上行走并在天空中飞翔了数百万年。数百万年的发声进化领先优势并没有产生会说话的大象、蝙蝠或鸟类，这表明原始人类谦卑的发声开端对语言进化具有决定性作用。目前关于现存大猩猩叫声的证据为已灭绝的发声形式和功能提供了新的细节和见解，这些发声形式和功能使人类祖先能够开启语言进化。通过重新审视导致语言产生的进化过程，本文主张将重点转向原始人类的栖息地、身体、大脑和行为，而不是将语言视为发声学习进化的巅峰终点，并与远缘的发声学习者进行误导性的类比。
