Neanderthals may have talked

By Michael Kahn

LONDON (Reuters) - Neanderthals, often portrayed as grunting, club-carrying brutes, may have been capable of sophisticated speech, researchers said on Thursday.

A DNA analysis shows Neanderthals share with humans two key changes in the FOXP2 gene known to be involved in speech, raising the possibility the species possessed some prerequisites for language, the researchers said.

"From the point of this gene at least the Neanderthals could have had language like we do," said Johannes Krause, a biochemist at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, who led the study.

But many as yet unknown genes may also underlie the capacity for language, the researchers added.

FOXP2 produces a protein that turns other genes on and off and people who carry a non-functioning copy of the gene have speech and language problems.

Animals ranging from mice to orangutans have the gene and scientists had thought a relatively small change in FOXP2 emerged just as humans did less than 200,000 years ago.

The findings published in Current Biology suggest the genetic variation occurred long before, potentially as long as 400,000 years ago.

"We were surprised to find the same variant of the FOXP2 gene that humans have," Krause said. "This suggests that the last common ancestor Neanderthal and humans shared had this gene."