Impedance-Matching Hearing in Paleozoic Reptiles: Evidence of Advanced Sensory Perception at an Early Stage of Amniote Evolution
BACKGROUND: Insights into the onset of evolutionary novelties are key to the understanding of amniote origins and diversification. The possession of an impedance-matching tympanic middle ear is characteristic of all terrestrial vertebrates with a sophisticated hearing sense and an adaptively importa...
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ftleibnizopen:oai:oai.leibnizopen.de:u0mcqIgBdbrxVwz66VpQ 2023-07-02T03:32:57+02:00 Impedance-Matching Hearing in Paleozoic Reptiles: Evidence of Advanced Sensory Perception at an Early Stage of Amniote Evolution Müller, Johannes Tsuji, Linda A. 2007 https://repository.publisso.de/resource/frl:6402839 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0000889 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1964539/ http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0000889#s5 eng eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ PLOS ONE, 2(9): e889 Middle ear Phylogenetic analysis Amniotes Ears Paleozoic era Skull Paleoecology Vertebrates 2007 ftleibnizopen https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0000889 2023-06-11T23:21:07Z BACKGROUND: Insights into the onset of evolutionary novelties are key to the understanding of amniote origins and diversification. The possession of an impedance-matching tympanic middle ear is characteristic of all terrestrial vertebrates with a sophisticated hearing sense and an adaptively important feature of many modern terrestrial vertebrates. Whereas tympanic ears seem to have evolved multiple times within tetrapods, especially among crown-group members such as frogs, mammals, squamates, turtles, crocodiles, and birds, the presence of true tympanic ears has never been recorded in a Paleozoic amniote, suggesting they evolved fairly recently in amniote history. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPLE FINDINGS: In the present study, we performed a morphological examination and a phylogenetic analysis of poorly known parareptiles from the Middle Permian of the Mezen River Basin in Russia. We recovered a well-supported clade that is characterized by a unique cheek morphology indicative of a tympanum stretching across large parts of the temporal region to an extent not seen in other amniotes, fossil or extant, and a braincase specialized in showing modifications clearly related to an increase in auditory function, unlike the braincase of any other Paleozoic tetrapod. In addition, we estimated the ratio of the tympanum area relative to the stapedial footplate for the basalmost taxon of the clade, which, at 23∶1, is in close correspondence to that of modern amniotes capable of efficient impedance-matching hearing. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Using modern amniotes as analogues, the possession of an impedance-matching middle ear in these parareptiles suggests unique ecological adaptations potentially related to living in dim-light environments. More importantly, our results demonstrate that already at an early stage of amniote diversification, and prior to the Permo-Triassic extinction event, the complexity of terrestrial vertebrate ecosystems had reached a level that proved advanced sensory perception to be of notable adaptive ... Other/Unknown Material Mezen Mezen' LeibnizOpen (The Leibniz Association) PLoS ONE 2 9 e889 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
LeibnizOpen (The Leibniz Association) |
op_collection_id |
ftleibnizopen |
language |
English |
topic |
Middle ear Phylogenetic analysis Amniotes Ears Paleozoic era Skull Paleoecology Vertebrates |
spellingShingle |
Middle ear Phylogenetic analysis Amniotes Ears Paleozoic era Skull Paleoecology Vertebrates Müller, Johannes Tsuji, Linda A. Impedance-Matching Hearing in Paleozoic Reptiles: Evidence of Advanced Sensory Perception at an Early Stage of Amniote Evolution |
topic_facet |
Middle ear Phylogenetic analysis Amniotes Ears Paleozoic era Skull Paleoecology Vertebrates |
description |
BACKGROUND: Insights into the onset of evolutionary novelties are key to the understanding of amniote origins and diversification. The possession of an impedance-matching tympanic middle ear is characteristic of all terrestrial vertebrates with a sophisticated hearing sense and an adaptively important feature of many modern terrestrial vertebrates. Whereas tympanic ears seem to have evolved multiple times within tetrapods, especially among crown-group members such as frogs, mammals, squamates, turtles, crocodiles, and birds, the presence of true tympanic ears has never been recorded in a Paleozoic amniote, suggesting they evolved fairly recently in amniote history. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPLE FINDINGS: In the present study, we performed a morphological examination and a phylogenetic analysis of poorly known parareptiles from the Middle Permian of the Mezen River Basin in Russia. We recovered a well-supported clade that is characterized by a unique cheek morphology indicative of a tympanum stretching across large parts of the temporal region to an extent not seen in other amniotes, fossil or extant, and a braincase specialized in showing modifications clearly related to an increase in auditory function, unlike the braincase of any other Paleozoic tetrapod. In addition, we estimated the ratio of the tympanum area relative to the stapedial footplate for the basalmost taxon of the clade, which, at 23∶1, is in close correspondence to that of modern amniotes capable of efficient impedance-matching hearing. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Using modern amniotes as analogues, the possession of an impedance-matching middle ear in these parareptiles suggests unique ecological adaptations potentially related to living in dim-light environments. More importantly, our results demonstrate that already at an early stage of amniote diversification, and prior to the Permo-Triassic extinction event, the complexity of terrestrial vertebrate ecosystems had reached a level that proved advanced sensory perception to be of notable adaptive ... |
author |
Müller, Johannes Tsuji, Linda A. |
author_facet |
Müller, Johannes Tsuji, Linda A. |
author_sort |
Müller, Johannes |
title |
Impedance-Matching Hearing in Paleozoic Reptiles: Evidence of Advanced Sensory Perception at an Early Stage of Amniote Evolution |
title_short |
Impedance-Matching Hearing in Paleozoic Reptiles: Evidence of Advanced Sensory Perception at an Early Stage of Amniote Evolution |
title_full |
Impedance-Matching Hearing in Paleozoic Reptiles: Evidence of Advanced Sensory Perception at an Early Stage of Amniote Evolution |
title_fullStr |
Impedance-Matching Hearing in Paleozoic Reptiles: Evidence of Advanced Sensory Perception at an Early Stage of Amniote Evolution |
title_full_unstemmed |
Impedance-Matching Hearing in Paleozoic Reptiles: Evidence of Advanced Sensory Perception at an Early Stage of Amniote Evolution |
title_sort |
impedance-matching hearing in paleozoic reptiles: evidence of advanced sensory perception at an early stage of amniote evolution |
publishDate |
2007 |
url |
https://repository.publisso.de/resource/frl:6402839 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0000889 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1964539/ http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0000889#s5 |
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Mezen Mezen' |
genre_facet |
Mezen Mezen' |
op_source |
PLOS ONE, 2(9): e889 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0000889 |
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PLoS ONE |
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2 |
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9 |
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e889 |
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