Articles | Volume 21, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/fr-21-33-2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/fr-21-33-2018
Research article
 | 
16 Jan 2018
Research article |  | 16 Jan 2018

Relationships of cochlear coiling shape and hearing frequencies in cetaceans, and the occurrence of infrasonic hearing in Miocene Mysticeti

Indira S. Ritsche, Julia M. Fahlke, Frank Wieder, André Hilger, Ingo Manke, and Oliver Hampe

Cited articles

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Short summary
The objective was to investigate inner ears and in particular the morphology of the cochlea of fossil and Recent baleen whales to reconstruct the occurrence of low-frequency hearing. Our results of cochlear shape analysis indicate that very low-frequency hearing appeared in the middle Miocene, and infrasonic hearing had evolved by the late Miocene. Cochlear coiling shape is suitable for estimating hearing limits in whales, closely approximated by cochlear length times number of cochlear turns.
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