Richard Futrell

“A key thing that distinguishes human speech from animal sounds is our fine-grained control over the sounds we make. That is only possible if our vocal apparatus is easy for our brains to control,” says Richard Futrell, [associate professor of language science] at the University of California, Irvine. “If the system is complex, then it will behave in a way that is chaotic and unpredictable.”

For the full story, please visit https://www.newscientist.com/article/2333278-losing-parts-of-our-voice-box-may-have-helped-humans-evolve-to-speak/.