Aging, hominid ears, whales and more reader feedback

How hominids heard

Ancient South African hominids that lived between 2.5 million and 1.5 million years ago could have heard high-frequency consonants better than either chimps or modern humans. An ability to hear, and presumably make, these sounds might have made these species more competitive, Bruce Bower wrote in “Ancient hominid ears were tuned to high frequencies” (SN: 10/31/15, p.