https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05859-7
Research casts doubt on the idea that the FOXP2 gene — linked to language evolution — is special to modern humans.
The evolution of human language was once thought to have hinged on changes to a single gene that were so beneficial that they raced through ancient human populations. But an analysis now suggests that this gene, FOXP2, did not undergo changes in Homo sapiens’ recent history after all — and that previous findings might simply have been false signals.