1. The mystery of language evolution

2. Tinbergen's four questions Proximate view How an individual organism's structures function: Ontogeny: Developmental explanations for changes in individuals, from the molecular interactions to their form. Mechanism (causation): Mechanistic explanations for how an organism's organs work Evolutionary (ultimate) view Why a species evolved the structures (adaptations) it has. Phylogeny: The history of the evolution of sequential changes in a species over many generations. Adaptation (function): A species trait that solves a reproductive or survival problem in the current environment

3. Ontogeny: Developmental explanations for changes in individuals, from the molecular interactions to their form. Mechanism (causation): Mechanistic explanations for how an organism's organs work Proximate explanations to how language occurs are well known

4. Somatosensory representation of the human body in the cortex

6. Figure 4.1: Simplified hominin phylogeny. After Lewin and Foley (2004) p. 17

7. Evolutionary (ultimate) view Why a species evolved the structures (adaptations) it has. Phylogeny: The history of the evolution of sequential changes in a species over many generations. Adaptation (function): A species trait that solves a reproductive or survival problem in the current environment Barney et al, 2011

10. The authors focus on 4 domains of inquiry to discuss if they contribute to theories of language evolution. Animal studiesPaleontology and archaeology Molecular Biology Modelling