Vocal tract anatomy of king penguins: Morphological traits of two-voiced sound production
Background The astonishing variety of sounds that birds can produce has been the subject of many studies aiming to identify the underlying anatomical and physical mechanisms of sound production. An interesting feature of some bird vocalisations is the simultaneous production of two different frequen...
Published in: | Frontiers in Zoology |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Frontiers Media
2020
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3010542 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12983-020-0351-8 |
id |
ftntnutrondheimi:oai:ntnuopen.ntnu.no:11250/3010542 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftntnutrondheimi:oai:ntnuopen.ntnu.no:11250/3010542 2023-05-15T17:03:50+02:00 Vocal tract anatomy of king penguins: Morphological traits of two-voiced sound production Kriesell, Hannah Joy Le Bohec, Céline Cerwenka, Alexander F. Hertel, Moritz Robin, Jean Patrice Ruthensteiner, Bernhard Gahr, Manfred Aubin, Thierry Düring, Daniel Normen 2020 application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3010542 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12983-020-0351-8 eng eng Frontiers Media Frontiers in Zoology. 2020, 17 . urn:issn:1742-9994 https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3010542 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12983-020-0351-8 cristin:1868782 Navngivelse 4.0 Internasjonal http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.no CC-BY 11 17 Frontiers in Zoology Journal article Peer reviewed 2020 ftntnutrondheimi https://doi.org/10.1186/s12983-020-0351-8 2022-08-10T22:40:55Z Background The astonishing variety of sounds that birds can produce has been the subject of many studies aiming to identify the underlying anatomical and physical mechanisms of sound production. An interesting feature of some bird vocalisations is the simultaneous production of two different frequencies. While most work has been focusing on songbirds, much less is known about dual-sound production in non-passerines, although their sound production organ, the syrinx, would technically allow many of them to produce “two voices”. Here, we focus on the king penguin, a colonial seabird whose calls consist of two fundamental frequency bands and their respective harmonics. The calls are produced during courtship and for partner and offspring reunions and encode the birds’ identity. We dissected, μCT-scanned and analysed the vocal tracts of six adult king penguins from Possession Island, Crozet Archipelago. Results King penguins possess a bronchial type syrinx that, similarly to the songbird’s tracheobronchial syrinx, has two sets of vibratory tissues, and thus two separate sound sources. Left and right medial labium differ consistently in diameter between 0.5 and 3.2%, with no laterality between left and right side. The trachea has a conical shape, increasing in diameter from caudal to cranial by 16%. About 80% of the king penguins’ trachea is medially divided by a septum consisting of soft elastic tissue (septum trachealis medialis). Conclusions The king penguins’ vocal tract appears to be mainly adapted to the life in a noisy colony of a species that relies on individual vocal recognition. The extent between the two voices encoding for individuality seems morphologically dictated by the length difference between left and right medial labium. The septum trachealis medialis might support this extent and could therefore be an important anatomical feature that aids in the individual recognition process. Background publishedVersion Article in Journal/Newspaper King Penguins Possession Island NTNU Open Archive (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) Possession Island ENVELOPE(171.200,171.200,-71.867,-71.867) Frontiers in Zoology 17 1 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
NTNU Open Archive (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) |
op_collection_id |
ftntnutrondheimi |
language |
English |
description |
Background The astonishing variety of sounds that birds can produce has been the subject of many studies aiming to identify the underlying anatomical and physical mechanisms of sound production. An interesting feature of some bird vocalisations is the simultaneous production of two different frequencies. While most work has been focusing on songbirds, much less is known about dual-sound production in non-passerines, although their sound production organ, the syrinx, would technically allow many of them to produce “two voices”. Here, we focus on the king penguin, a colonial seabird whose calls consist of two fundamental frequency bands and their respective harmonics. The calls are produced during courtship and for partner and offspring reunions and encode the birds’ identity. We dissected, μCT-scanned and analysed the vocal tracts of six adult king penguins from Possession Island, Crozet Archipelago. Results King penguins possess a bronchial type syrinx that, similarly to the songbird’s tracheobronchial syrinx, has two sets of vibratory tissues, and thus two separate sound sources. Left and right medial labium differ consistently in diameter between 0.5 and 3.2%, with no laterality between left and right side. The trachea has a conical shape, increasing in diameter from caudal to cranial by 16%. About 80% of the king penguins’ trachea is medially divided by a septum consisting of soft elastic tissue (septum trachealis medialis). Conclusions The king penguins’ vocal tract appears to be mainly adapted to the life in a noisy colony of a species that relies on individual vocal recognition. The extent between the two voices encoding for individuality seems morphologically dictated by the length difference between left and right medial labium. The septum trachealis medialis might support this extent and could therefore be an important anatomical feature that aids in the individual recognition process. Background publishedVersion |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kriesell, Hannah Joy Le Bohec, Céline Cerwenka, Alexander F. Hertel, Moritz Robin, Jean Patrice Ruthensteiner, Bernhard Gahr, Manfred Aubin, Thierry Düring, Daniel Normen |
spellingShingle |
Kriesell, Hannah Joy Le Bohec, Céline Cerwenka, Alexander F. Hertel, Moritz Robin, Jean Patrice Ruthensteiner, Bernhard Gahr, Manfred Aubin, Thierry Düring, Daniel Normen Vocal tract anatomy of king penguins: Morphological traits of two-voiced sound production |
author_facet |
Kriesell, Hannah Joy Le Bohec, Céline Cerwenka, Alexander F. Hertel, Moritz Robin, Jean Patrice Ruthensteiner, Bernhard Gahr, Manfred Aubin, Thierry Düring, Daniel Normen |
author_sort |
Kriesell, Hannah Joy |
title |
Vocal tract anatomy of king penguins: Morphological traits of two-voiced sound production |
title_short |
Vocal tract anatomy of king penguins: Morphological traits of two-voiced sound production |
title_full |
Vocal tract anatomy of king penguins: Morphological traits of two-voiced sound production |
title_fullStr |
Vocal tract anatomy of king penguins: Morphological traits of two-voiced sound production |
title_full_unstemmed |
Vocal tract anatomy of king penguins: Morphological traits of two-voiced sound production |
title_sort |
vocal tract anatomy of king penguins: morphological traits of two-voiced sound production |
publisher |
Frontiers Media |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3010542 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12983-020-0351-8 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(171.200,171.200,-71.867,-71.867) |
geographic |
Possession Island |
geographic_facet |
Possession Island |
genre |
King Penguins Possession Island |
genre_facet |
King Penguins Possession Island |
op_source |
11 17 Frontiers in Zoology |
op_relation |
Frontiers in Zoology. 2020, 17 . urn:issn:1742-9994 https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3010542 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12983-020-0351-8 cristin:1868782 |
op_rights |
Navngivelse 4.0 Internasjonal http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.no |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12983-020-0351-8 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Zoology |
container_volume |
17 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1766057781439234048 |