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.

鉴于其与种内声音交流的关系，对化石人科动物听觉的研究非常有趣。虽然早期古人类和更新世中期 Sima de los Huesos 古人类的听觉能力已经得到研究，但人们对尼安德特人的听觉能力知之甚少。在这里，我们提供了他们听觉能力的详细方法。依靠计算机断层扫描和听觉生物工程领域的综合模型，我们建立了通过外耳和中耳的声能传输，并计算了尼安德特人的占用带宽。占用带宽直接关系到一个物种的声音通信系统的效率。