News in Brief Anthropology

Ancient hominid ears were tuned to high frequencies

Paranthropus robustus skull

HIGH-PITCHED  Scientists made a virtual 3-D reconstruction of the ear anatomy for Paranthropus robustus and determined that the hominid heard the high-frequency sounds needed to discern certain consonants.

Rolf Quam

By Bruce Bower

- More than 2 years ago

South African hominids that lived between around 2.5 million and 1.5 million years ago had an ear for high-frequency consonant sounds, anthropologist Rolf Quam of Binghamton University in New York and colleagues report September 25 in Science Advances.