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https://theconversation.com/seals-have-a-unique-superpower-in-their-ears-and-we-finally-know-how-it-evolved-287072>
"Have you ever tried to talk to someone while underwater? No matter how loud
you might shout, it always sounds muffled. But why? As with many things in our
bodies, the answer lies with evolution.
Humans evolved on land, and our ears are adapted to collect and interpret sound
travelling through the air. Unfortunately, this makes our ears pretty much
useless underwater.
Most mammals can either hear well only in air (dogs, humans) or water (whales).
But there is one group of mammals who can do both – seals. This includes true
seals, eared seals, and walruses.
These marine mammals spend time both on land and at sea, and need to balance
life in both worlds, including their hearing. Known as amphibious hearing, this
ability is unique to seals, and therefore quite the superpower.
While we know that seals can hear amphibiously, what’s long remained a mystery
is exactly how they do so, and when this ability evolved. In our new paper,
published today in
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences,
we investigated amphibious hearing in seals to find answers to these
questions."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
