Before our ancestors even survive , ancient hominins might have been sailing the sea and discovering fresh lands . This , according toone researcher , suggests they were also talking to each other as a effect .
It ’s generally believed that language first evolved with our own speciesaround 300,000 years ago , although there ’s some grounds to suggest that Neanderthals may have been able to mouth as well . Now , researchers are questioning whether or not terminology might haveevolved much sooner than this .
When our own coinage pace out of the African continent , we were following in the footsteps of another ancient hominin . Homo erectusis thought to have evolved roughly 1.9 million years ago in Africa and is the first to have had fidgety feet . By 500,000 years ago , the ape had made three expanding upon out of the continent , making it to southern Europe , China , and even several Indonesian island .
It ’s this last feat that has intrigued paleoanthropologists .
Fossils show that the ancient man manage to make it to Java by around a million years ago , with some intimate they then crossed the open water to reach the island of Flores . It ’s also been argued that the lilliputian homininHomo floresiensisis descended fromH. erectus , but this is a extremely litigious point , with some evidence intimate otherwise .
“ Oceans were never a barrier to the travels oferectus , ” Daniel Everett , who present the unexampled thorey , told theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Sciencemeeting this hebdomad . “ He travelled all over the world , move around to the island of Flores , across one of the great ocean flow in the world . They sail to the island of Crete and various other islands . It was designed : they needed craft and they necessitate to take groups of 20 or so at least to get to those places . "
He argues that to sweep the tumultuous waters around Indonesia , they would have need to have build vessels and coordinate paddling . This , he says , is simply not possible without some form of rudimentary language .
While interesting , this is not on the button a widely accepted theory . Some do agree that ifH. erectusbuilt boats , they would have been able to commune in more than just grunt , but others question if they even built vessels . Monkeys , for example , are not know for their ocean - fare ability and yet they made it across the Atlantic from Africa to South America40 million years ago .
Just becauseHomo erectuscould craft tools does not intend they had words . Plenty of animals – from chimpanzees to Caledonian crow – are able-bodied to pull strings object and make tools without anywhere near the same word attainment that we utilize . This ability alone , then , is not sufficient to conclude with confidence thatH. erectuscould talk too .
