人类的语言和大脑有关吗（远古人类与现代人类的听力有点不同）

人类的语言和大脑有关吗（远古人类与现代人类的听力有点不同）“We’ve been able to reconstruct an aspect of sensory perception in a fossil human ancestor known as Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus from South Africa.” Binghamton University anthropologist Rolf Quam said.“Both of these fossil forms lived about two million years ago and represent early human ancestors. We took CT scans of the skulls. We created virtual reconstructions on the co

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Ancient Human Ancestors Heard Differently

远古人类与现代人类的听力有点不同

撰文：辛西娅·格莱博（Cynthia Graber）

翻译：王娇娇

审校：张旭阳

Imagine the evolutionary advantage of being able to hear a predator rustling in the tall grass nearby—or in the ability to hear a comrade making a sound to warn you about that predator. Now a study finds that early human species may have had sharper hearing in certain frequencies than we enjoy. The finding is in the journal Science Advances. [Rolf Quam et al Early hominin auditory capacities]

想象一下，如果能听见野兽在高高的草丛中穿行的窸窣声，或能听见同伴发出的警告声，这种敏锐听觉肯定是个进化优势，对不？目前有研究表明，早期人类物种在特定的频率上可能有着比我们更为敏锐的听力，相关研究结果已发表于期刊Science Advances（Rolf Quam et al Early hominin auditory capacities.）。

“We’ve been able to reconstruct an aspect of sensory perception in a fossil human ancestor known as Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus from South Africa.” Binghamton University anthropologist Rolf Quam said.“Both of these fossil forms lived about two million years ago and represent early human ancestors. We took CT scans of the skulls. We created virtual reconstructions on the computer of the internal structures of the ear that will predict how an organism hears based on these measurements of its ear.”

“我们选择了来自非洲的南方古猿非洲种（Australopithecus africanus） 和南方古猿粗壮种（Paranthropus robustus）来重建人类祖先的感官。” 宾汉姆顿大学（Binghamton University）的人类学家罗尔夫·夸姆（Rolf Quam）说道，“这些化石形成于200万年前，是早期人类的代表。我们通过CT扫描化石头骨，基于这些测量，我们用电脑对耳朵内部与听力相关的结构进行了可视化重建。”

The original skull (without upper teeth and mandible) of a 2.1-million-year-old Australopithecus africanus specimen so-called Mrs. Ples discovered in South Africa. (José Braga; Didier Descouens via Wikimedia Commons)

这个原始头骨（没有上牙和下颌）就是所谓的普莱斯女士（Mrs.Ples），属于南方古猿非洲种人，发现于南非，已有210万年历史.（José Braga; Didier Descouens via Wikimedia Commons）

And the reconstructed physiology reveals that those early hominins likely heard differently than both modern chimps and modern humans. Specifically the hominins were probably more sensitive to frequencies associated with sounds like t k f and s.

重建后的生物数据显示早期类人猿的听觉模式既不同于现代的黑猩猩，也不同于现代人类。具体来说，类人猿很可能对t、k、f和s相关的声音频率更为敏感。

“We’re not arguing they had language but we think our results do have implications for how they communicated. And the finding is that this hearing pattern would have been beneficial if you were engaging in short-range vocal communication in an open environment.”

“我们并不是说他们已经有了语言，但是我们的结果确实可以用于推断他们是如何交流的。结果表明在开阔地带，这种听觉模式有利于短距离的声音交流。”

The estimation of the hearing abilities of the hominins complements previous research suggesting that these species spent more time in open environments such as the savannah—where a hasty short-range consonant from a comrade might convey important information—than they spent in dense rainforests where sound travels farther. Could be that [consonant sounds] were survival tools that also paved the way for the evolution of full-fledged human language. Even if we can’t hear those sounds quite as well as those ancient hominins did.

先前的研究发现，类人猿在稀树草原类的开阔环境中活动的活动时间要比密集的雨林中长。评估类人猿听力是对此研究的一个补充，因为在开阔地带，声音较雨林中传播距离短，而同伴发出的急促且短程的辅音可能传递了重要信息。尽管我们不能像类人猿那样听到这些音节，但是辅音音节作为一种生存手段，为成熟人类语言的形成铺平了道路。

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