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Which evolved first,hearing or speaking
- Thread starter FearGod
- Start date
FearGod
Freedom Of Mind
Which organism do you think that evolved with the ability to hear ?
FearGod
Freedom Of Mind
And which organism first to evolve the ability to produce sound ?
Every organism produces sound. Most of them just do it too quietly for us to hear. Sound is vibration.
leibowde84
Veteran Member
It would have to be hearing. "Speaking" is defined as follows, "the action of conveying information or expressing one's thoughts and feelings in spoken language." Since "spoken language" only applies to human beings (no other organism/species has the abilty to express their thoughts and feelings using spoken language), and hearing applies to any organism that can sense sound, hearing would have had to come millions, if not billions of years before speaking.
Here is an explanation that seems pretty legit re: hearing:
"Hearing became useful to have when animals began to be preyed upon by motile predators and prey animals also developed motility--the ability to flee/hunt. It evolved independently in different branches of the Tree of Life.
That would be--off the top of my head--in the Permian, with marine arthropods--crustaceans and suchlike--and insects on land. Some form of tympanum evolved independently 19 times among the insects alone, I believe."
FearGod
Freedom Of Mind
I mean producing sound to communicate, which was first organism that evolved to produce sounds after possessing the ability to hear
leibowde84
Veteran Member
That is kind of a trick question. The term "communicate" requires that another organism is able to "hear" it. So, sound had to of come first.
The first organism to communicate through sound would have been either an anthropod or an insect, I believe.
FearGod
Freedom Of Mind
No evidence for which was the first organism to evolve with the ability to produce sound as means of communication.
leibowde84
Veteran Member
Fossil records present evidence. Also logical deductions using evolutino
Good one ... very topical.
And the point of that is... ?
leibowde84
Veteran Member
Do you think that a lack of available evidence to show conclusively what was the first animal to gain the ability to hear/speak is important? I mean, even if there was evidence somewhere out there, why would scientists waste their time looking for it?
FearGod
Freedom Of Mind
What the fossils says about hearing and producing sounds for communication ?
Would you please clarify what did they find out ?
FearGod
Freedom Of Mind
I think it's important in order to know how we got it ? how it started and how it evolved by nature ?, speaking science.
leibowde84
Veteran Member
Again, I'm not a scientist, so my background in this subject is pretty lacking, but I would assume that they could find indications of sound-making in bone structures of currently existing organisms and compare them with the fossils of ancient extinct organisms and figure out what most likely was the first organism to be able to communicate through sound. What is your issue? It desn't need to be proof positive or anything ... a question like this would be answered by a "best guess," as is often the case in scientific research/understanding.
You mean, as in eyewitnesses? I suppose not. Nor would it be reasonable to expect any.
We do not know the specifics of a whole lot of things that are nonetheless basically certain.
That said, producing sound is all but unavoidable for organisms above a certain size, and sensing it is a natural enough development for me to guess that it may have developed more than once during the history of animal species.
Also, it is a bit unclear what you mean by communication here. A lot of animals have warning growls of some kind, for instance. Would they count as communication?
leibowde84
Veteran Member
Oh, well of course there are scientists who have nailed down the progression of this aspect of evolution. I just feel that knowing the first organism is not that important. The progression of vocal evolution is what they would be interested in. In other words, how organisms got better and better at communication, and what specific changes/mutations caused this to happen.
There are tons of scientific journals on this subject. I can find some links if you are interested in reading them. But, they are usually pretty tough reads.