Great ears: Low-frequency sensitivity correlates in land and marine leviathans

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016.Like elephants, baleen whales produce low-frequency (LF) and even infrasonic (IF) signals, suggesting they may be particularly susceptible to underwater anthropogenic sound impacts. Analyses of computerized tomography scans and histologies of the ears...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ketten, Darlene, Arruda, J., Cramer, S., Yamato, M.
Format: Book Part
Language:unknown
Published: 2016
Subjects:
baleen whale
baleen whales
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/52342
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-2981-8_64
Description
Summary:© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016.Like elephants, baleen whales produce low-frequency (LF) and even infrasonic (IF) signals, suggesting they may be particularly susceptible to underwater anthropogenic sound impacts. Analyses of computerized tomography scans and histologies of the ears in five baleen whale and two elephant species revealed that LF thresholds correlate with basilar membrane thickness/width and cochlear radii ratios. These factors are consistent with high-mass, low-stiffness membranes and broad spiral curvatures, suggesting that Mysticeti and Proboscidea evolved common inner ear adaptations over similar time scales for processing IF/LF sounds despite operating in different media.

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