Orangutans are better beatboxers than us: Is this how human speech began?
New research has found that orangutans (which are indeed apes, not monkeys) possess beatboxing skills as good, if not more impressive than their primate cousins — us — and it may be a huge clue to the evolution of human speech.“Humans rarely produce voiced and voiceless noises simultaneously. The exception is beatboxing, a skilled vocal performance which mimics the complex beats of hip-hop music,” co-author Madeleine Hardus said.“But the very fact that humans are anatomically able to beatbox, raises questions about where that ability came from.