Evidence for convergent evolution of ultrasonic hearing in toothed whales (Cetacea: Odontoceti)
Toothed whales (Cetacea: Odontoceti) are the most diverse group of modern cetaceans, originating during the Eocene/Oligocene transition approximately 38 Ma. All extant odontocetes echolocate; a single origin for this behaviour is supported by a unique facial source for ultrasonic vocalizations and a...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:6548736 2023-05-15T18:33:29+02:00 Evidence for convergent evolution of ultrasonic hearing in toothed whales (Cetacea: Odontoceti) Racicot, Rachel A. Boessenecker, Robert W. Darroch, Simon A. F. Geisler, Jonathan H. 2019-05 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6548736/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31088283 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0083 en eng The Royal Society http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6548736/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31088283 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0083 © 2019 The Author(s) http://royalsocietypublishing.org/licence Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. Palaeontology Text 2019 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0083 2020-05-03T00:23:32Z Toothed whales (Cetacea: Odontoceti) are the most diverse group of modern cetaceans, originating during the Eocene/Oligocene transition approximately 38 Ma. All extant odontocetes echolocate; a single origin for this behaviour is supported by a unique facial source for ultrasonic vocalizations and a cochlea adapted for hearing the corresponding echoes. The craniofacial and inner ear morphology of Oligocene odontocetes support a rapid (less than 5 Myr) early evolution of echolocation. Although some cranial features in the stem odontocetes Simocetus and Olympicetus suggest an ability to generate ultrasonic sound, until now, the bony labyrinths of taxa of this grade have not been investigated. Here, we use µCT to examine a petrosal of a taxon with clear similarities to Olympicetus avitus. Measurements of the bony labyrinth, when added to an extensive dataset of cetartiodactyls, resulted in this specimen sharing a morphospace with stem whales, suggesting a transitional inner ear. This discovery implies that either the lineage leading to this Olympicetus-like taxon lost the ability to hear ultrasonic sound, or adaptations for ultrasonic hearing evolved twice, once in xenorophids and again on the stem of the odontocete crown group. We favour the latter interpretation as it matches a well-documented convergence of craniofacial morphology between xenorophids and extant odontocetes. Text toothed whales PubMed Central (PMC) Labyrinth ENVELOPE(160.833,160.833,-77.550,-77.550) Biology Letters 15 5 20190083 |
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Palaeontology Racicot, Rachel A. Boessenecker, Robert W. Darroch, Simon A. F. Geisler, Jonathan H. Evidence for convergent evolution of ultrasonic hearing in toothed whales (Cetacea: Odontoceti) |
topic_facet |
Palaeontology |
description |
Toothed whales (Cetacea: Odontoceti) are the most diverse group of modern cetaceans, originating during the Eocene/Oligocene transition approximately 38 Ma. All extant odontocetes echolocate; a single origin for this behaviour is supported by a unique facial source for ultrasonic vocalizations and a cochlea adapted for hearing the corresponding echoes. The craniofacial and inner ear morphology of Oligocene odontocetes support a rapid (less than 5 Myr) early evolution of echolocation. Although some cranial features in the stem odontocetes Simocetus and Olympicetus suggest an ability to generate ultrasonic sound, until now, the bony labyrinths of taxa of this grade have not been investigated. Here, we use µCT to examine a petrosal of a taxon with clear similarities to Olympicetus avitus. Measurements of the bony labyrinth, when added to an extensive dataset of cetartiodactyls, resulted in this specimen sharing a morphospace with stem whales, suggesting a transitional inner ear. This discovery implies that either the lineage leading to this Olympicetus-like taxon lost the ability to hear ultrasonic sound, or adaptations for ultrasonic hearing evolved twice, once in xenorophids and again on the stem of the odontocete crown group. We favour the latter interpretation as it matches a well-documented convergence of craniofacial morphology between xenorophids and extant odontocetes. |
format |
Text |
author |
Racicot, Rachel A. Boessenecker, Robert W. Darroch, Simon A. F. Geisler, Jonathan H. |
author_facet |
Racicot, Rachel A. Boessenecker, Robert W. Darroch, Simon A. F. Geisler, Jonathan H. |
author_sort |
Racicot, Rachel A. |
title |
Evidence for convergent evolution of ultrasonic hearing in toothed whales (Cetacea: Odontoceti) |
title_short |
Evidence for convergent evolution of ultrasonic hearing in toothed whales (Cetacea: Odontoceti) |
title_full |
Evidence for convergent evolution of ultrasonic hearing in toothed whales (Cetacea: Odontoceti) |
title_fullStr |
Evidence for convergent evolution of ultrasonic hearing in toothed whales (Cetacea: Odontoceti) |
title_full_unstemmed |
Evidence for convergent evolution of ultrasonic hearing in toothed whales (Cetacea: Odontoceti) |
title_sort |
evidence for convergent evolution of ultrasonic hearing in toothed whales (cetacea: odontoceti) |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6548736/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31088283 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0083 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(160.833,160.833,-77.550,-77.550) |
geographic |
Labyrinth |
geographic_facet |
Labyrinth |
genre |
toothed whales |
genre_facet |
toothed whales |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6548736/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31088283 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0083 |
op_rights |
© 2019 The Author(s) http://royalsocietypublishing.org/licence Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0083 |
container_title |
Biology Letters |
container_volume |
15 |
container_issue |
5 |
container_start_page |
20190083 |
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1766218098284691456 |