production of implements or in scratches on anterior teeth (Toth 1985;
Lalueza Fox and Frayer 1997),geographic expansion and exploitation of
new habitats (Wolpoff 1996),and changes in dietary habits through a
greater reliance on hunting (Wolpoff 1996).All these fit the inference
that the early members of our genus probably were capable of language.
And what of singing and music? On the one hand,certain constraints
for creating song are less than those involved in creating speech.As
singing depends on an open vocal tract and thus vowels,it demands fewer
articulatory constraints than speech.To the extent that the hyoid bone
and external cranial base of early Homofossils show modern configura-
tions,then it is quite likely that these hominids were capable of forming
the vowels necessary for singing.On the other hand,singing requires a
much greater control of airflow than does speaking,in terms of the dura-
tion,amplitude,and pitch range of sound.The paleontological evidence
reviewed in this chapter suggests that by 1.5 million years ago,both the
respiratory and nasal systems of hominids assumed the form of anatom-
ically modern humans.It thus seems likely that by this date,both the
articulatory capacity to form vowels and the respiratory capacity to
maintain high-volume airflow were present in our hominid ancestors,and
therefore,most likely,the capacity to sing as well.Acknowledgments
We thank the Cleveland Museum of Natural History for access to their
skeletal collections,and Milford H.Wolpoff for some of the hominid
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