The ears say it all (Image: Atomic imagery/Getty)

Our australopith ancestors heard their world differently from modern humans.

Rolf Quam at Binghamton University in New York State and colleagues have discovered rare middle ear bones from two extinct southern African hominins – Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus.

A combination of ape-like and human-like features in the bones indicate some australopiths lacked sensitivity to the midrange frequencies that modern humans use for speech.


“Anthropologists are in general agreement that these early hominins likely did not possess spoken language,” says Quam – the new findings back that claim.

His team now plans to use CT scans of the fossils and 3D virtual reconstruction of the ear anatomy to work out more precisely what the world sounded like to our distant ancestors.

Journal reference: PNAS, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1303375110