Dec 20, 2013 12:13 PM EST By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

Neanderthals may have a new characteristic in common with modern humans: the ability to speak.

According to BBC News, a new study has discovered the horseshoe-shaped hyoid bone in the Neanderthal's neck was used similarly to how modern humans use it. The bone discovery, is "highly suggestive" of complex speech.

The hyoid bone supports speech with its placement at the root of a person's tongue. In non-human primates, this bone is not placed in the same spot. The research team, whose study is published in the journal PLOS One, analyzed a 3-D model of a Neanderthal throat bone discovered in 1989.

"We would argue that this is a very significant step forward. It shows that the Kebara 2 hyoid doesn't just look like those of modern humans - it was used in a very similar way," Stephen Wroe, of the University of New South Wales, Australia, told BBC News. "Many would argue that our capacity for speech and language is among the most fundamental of characteristics that makes us human. If Neanderthals also had language then they were truly human too."

The new discovery challenges the idea that complex language is just 100,000 years old and is exclusive to modern humans. The study will also likely prompt the 3-D modeling and examination of other hyoid bones, some of which are dated 500,000 years and older.

Wroe said most have not been examined the way the Kbara 2 (named after the cave in Israel where it was found) fossil has, but will likely support what the new study suggests.

"We were very careful not to suggest that we had proven anything beyond doubt - but I do think it will help to convince a good number of specialists and tip the weight of opinion," Wroe said.

Dan Dediu, from the Max Plank Institute for Psycholinguistics, Netherlands, said the new study affirms what he suggested in a review article earlier this year. He argued in Frontiers in Psychology that Neanderthals were capable of language.

"The authors themselves are understandably cautious in drawing strong conclusions but I think that their work clearly supports the contention that speech and language is an old feature of our lineage going back at least to the last common ancestor that we shared with the Neanderthals." Dr. Dediu told BBC News.

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