The human FOXP2 gene exists in a derived form in humans today and appears to play a critical role in language development.
More recently, arguments about the origins of language have focused on the reconstructed histories of genes associated with language production in humans. The recovery of ancient genetic sequences from Neandertals and other archaic human specimens (e.g., a specimen from Denisova Cave in Siberia, Russia) have provided new insight into the genetic history of language production. The human FOXP2 gene exists in a derived form in humans today and appears to play a critical role in language development. The identification of the human form of FOXP2 in both Neandertal and Denisovan genomes suggests this gene likely goes back at least to the Middle Pleistocene, with H. erectus a possible source lineage (although there is no H. erectus ancient DNA to test this hypothesis). This does not suggest H. erectus had well-developed language capabilities but, like the anatomical evidence, does not provide any evidence to reject the idea.