Cátedra de Otoacústica Evolutiva y Paleoantropología (HM Hospitales-Universidad de Alcalá), Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad de Alcalá, Madrid, Spain.
Centro Mixto (UCM-ISCIII) de Evolución y Comportamiento Humanos, Madrid, Spain.
Nat Ecol Evol. 2021 May;5(5):609-615. doi: 10.1038/s41559-021-01391-6. Epub 2021 Mar 1.
The study of audition in fossil hominins is of great interest given its relationship with intraspecific vocal communication. While the auditory capacities have been studied in early hominins and in the Middle Pleistocene Sima de los Huesos hominins, less is known about the hearing abilities of the Neanderthals. Here, we provide a detailed approach to their auditory capacities. Relying on computerized tomography scans and a comprehensive model from the field of auditory bioengineering, we have established sound power transmission through the outer and middle ear and calculated the occupied bandwidth in Neanderthals. The occupied bandwidth is directly related to the efficiency of the vocal communication system of a species. Our results show that the occupied bandwidth of Neanderthals was greater than the Sima de los Huesos hominins and similar to extant humans, implying that Neanderthals evolved the auditory capacities to support a vocal communication system as efficient as modern human speech.
鉴于听觉与种内声音交流的关系，研究化石人类的听觉具有重要意义。虽然早期人类和中更新世西玛德洛斯胡埃斯人类的听觉能力已经得到研究，但尼安德特人的听力能力知之甚少。在这里，我们提供了一种详细的方法来研究他们的听觉能力。我们依靠计算机断层扫描和听觉生物工程领域的综合模型，已经建立了外耳和中耳的声音功率传输，并计算了尼安德特人的占用带宽。占用带宽与物种的声音交流系统效率直接相关。我们的研究结果表明，尼安德特人的占用带宽大于西玛德洛斯胡埃斯人类，与现生人类相似，这意味着尼安德特人进化出了听觉能力，以支持与现代人类言语一样高效的声音交流系统。
