Teleology & evolution: Vocal cord development (Introduction)

by David Turell , Friday, December 16, 2016, 20:07 (2693 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Except, we have fully accepted evidence that anatomic vocal tract bony changes started with or before H. habilis, a couple million years ago. Habilis appeared with the changes. Do you think Australopithecus thought, I need to find a way to communicate better than hand gestures? I still think God makes species, species don't make new ones by themselves.

dhw: Our ancestors had voices. Monkeys have voices. Monkeys communicate with their voices and their hands. My guess is that early humans did the same. And as their enhanced consciousness brought the need for enhanced communication, they used their voices to produce new sounds, and just as physical exercise can influence the muscles, the effort to produce new sounds brought changes to the vocal tracts. As I said, the new discovery doesn't actually change our basic premise. But I still think it favours mine over yours, if it's true that the physical capability was already present in monkeys. No need, then, for your God to fiddle around.

You stated above: "the effort to produce new sounds brought changes to the vocal tracts". Really? Produced new hominin species just by vocalizing? The vocal tract changes in each new pre-sapiens form also came with all sorts of other phenotypic alterations at the same time. I'll stick with God as the producer of new species with all their newly changed parts.