A New Acoustic Portal into the Odontocete Ear and Vibrational Analysis of the Tympanoperiotic Complex
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Authors
Cranford, Ted W.
Krysl, Petr
Amundin, Mats
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2010-08
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Abstract
Global concern over the possible deleterious effects of noise on marine organisms was catalyzed when toothed whales
stranded and died in the presence of high intensity sound. The lack of knowledge about mechanisms of hearing in toothed
whales prompted our group to study the anatomy and build a finite element model to simulate sound reception in
odontocetes. The primary auditory pathway in toothed whales is an evolutionary novelty, compensating for the impedance
mismatch experienced by whale ancestors as they moved from hearing in air to hearing in water. The mechanism by which
high-frequency vibrations pass from the low density fats of the lower jaw into the dense bones of the auditory apparatus is
a key to understanding odontocete hearing. Here we identify a new acoustic portal into the ear complex, the
tympanoperiotic complex (TPC) and a plausible mechanism by which sound is transduced into the bony components. We
reveal the intact anatomic geometry using CT scanning, and test functional preconceptions using finite element modeling
and vibrational analysis. We show that the mandibular fat bodies bifurcate posteriorly, attaching to the TPC in two distinct
locations. The smaller branch is an inconspicuous, previously undescribed channel, a cone-shaped fat body that fits into a
thin-walled bony funnel just anterior to the sigmoid process of the TPC. The TPC also contains regions of thin translucent
bone that define zones of differential flexibility, enabling the TPC to bend in response to sound pressure, thus providing a
mechanism for vibrations to pass through the ossicular chain. The techniques used to discover the new acoustic portal in
toothed whales, provide a means to decipher auditory filtering, beam formation, impedance matching, and transduction.
These tools can also be used to address concerns about the potential deleterious effects of high-intensity sound in a broad
spectrum of marine organisms, from whales to fish.
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The article of record as published may be located at http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0011927
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This research could not have been completed without the stalwart support of Dr. V. Frank Stone and Mr. Ernest Young at the Chief of Naval Operations Environmental Readiness Division (CNO-N45), Dr. Curtis Collins and John Joseph at the Naval Postgraduate School, and the staff at the San Diego State University Research Foundation.
Funder
Fleet Industrial Supply Center (FISC). Grant # N00244-08-1-0025. The funding flows from the Chief of Naval Operations Environmental Readiness
Division (CNO-N45) and the Naval Postgraduate School. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
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Cranford TW, Krysl P, Amundin M (2010) A New Acoustic Portal into the Odontocete Ear and Vibrational Analysis of the Tympanoperiotic Complex. PLoS
ONE 5(8): e11927. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0011927
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This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.