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Is it known when humans or our ancestors first started to sing? What is the reason for starting to do so? (continued)
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滨苍茅蝉 础苍迟贸苍 惭茅苍诲别锄
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Some theories of language evolution, including Charles Darwin鈥檚, propose that the first proto-language was actually based on singing. Without getting too technical, this would help explain both the evolution of the vocal tract and the relationship between sound and meaning. If this theory is correct, since language is thought to have emerged around 135,000 to 200,000 years ago, singing would have to be even older. Other primates, such as gibbons and tarsiers, sing too, so it is possible that the last common ancestor of all primates, living some 55 million to 60 million years ago, was already capable of it. If so, around 300,000 years ago, perhaps the very first Homo sapiens came to the world already singing.
The easier-to-breathe-through nostril is good at taking in air and the low-flow nostril is better at detecting scents
Why sing? According to Darwin, the musical proto-language could have been useful for courtship and to mark territory. Given that music is also known to have calming effects, it may have had other purposes too, like the cooing mothers do to soothe fussy babies.
Martijn Hover
Seaford, East Sussex, UK
Although this is a question that is hard to answer, it would appear that this was some time 鈥� maybe even a long time 鈥� before we started using language. We now have evidence that parts of the brain that are involved with processing music may have a longer evolutionary history than the ones involved with processing language.
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