Do apes have a hyoid bone?

Question

Do apes have a hyoid bone?

Answer 1

No, the Homo sapien is the last surviving member of the order primate to have a hyoid bone, necessary for controlling air over the vocal cords & producing speech.  Homo hablis, the 1st primate to recieve the homo prefix, does not appear to have had a hyoid bone either.  The Homo erectus, Homo neandertal, & Homo sapien are the only primates that possessed this adaptation.

Recent sequencing of the neandertal DNA has determined  they also possessed the same gene that allows sapien to construct complicated gramatical sentences (foxp2 gene located on chromosome 13).  Unfortunately we've not recovered enough Homo erectus DNA to sequence yet.  The target date for complete sequencing of neandertal DNA is late this year or early next year.

Both neandertal & sapien evolved from erectus, so it it likely that erectus also possesses the foxp2 gene.

Man did I blow this answer... Ichabod is of course right... This is most embarressing.  The Chimp's hyoid bone is just not as low as is the sapien bone.

Answer 2

Yes they do. However, it differs from the human hyoid:

"The hyoid, a horseshoe-shaped bone, is unique in that it is the only bone not articulated to any other bone of the skeleton, instead being connected to the skull by ligaments and muscles. The hyoid is implicated in the evolution of speech development. Recently, researchers at Kyoto University in Japan discovered that in both chimps and humans the larynx descends in the newborn. Only in the newborn human, however, does the hyoid descend in relation to the lower jaw and cranial base."

http://www.boneclones.com/KO-102.htm

Apes:

"relatively large tongue, high larynx, likely very poor motor control  

hyoid bone doesn't descend as in humans "

http://pubpages.unh.edu/~jel/712/Ape_nea...

This movement increases the human ability to make sounds.