More nimble and flexible tongues made it easier to control the nuance and structure of sounds, so the tongue slipped farther down the throat and pushed the jaw forward. But this lowered larynx became less efficient at its original purpose. It created too much space at the back of the mouth and made early humans susceptible to choking. We could choke if we swallowed something too big, and we’d choke on smaller objects that were swallowed quickly and sloppily. Sapiens would become the only animals, and the only human species, that could easily choke on food and die.
