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Hyperglossal CanalThe hyperglossal canal is a hole in the bottom of the skull in humans and some other animals, through which the hyperglossal nerve passes from the brain stem to most muscles of the tongue. The size of the hyperglossal canal in fossil skulls has been used to suggest the size of the hyperglossal nerve in various extinct hominins, which in turn indicates the degree of control they had over their tongues and the probability they had developed language. Australopithecines had a small hyperglossal canal, about the same size as in modern chimpanzees; but in Homo heidelbergensis and Neanderthals the canal was twice as large, similar to modern humans.
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