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The Foundations of High-Frequency Hearing in Early Mammals

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Abstract

It has become common in the paleontological literature to assume that the presence of secondary bony laminae in the cochleae of early mammals indicates that these species were able to perceive high sound frequencies (>20 kHz). This review examines the validity of this idea in the context of comparative physiological data from extant amniotes and surveys a number of unique features of mammalian cochleae that correlate with high-frequency hearing. As it is difficult to imagine how all of these features could have arisen simultaneously, high-frequency hearing probably had a more gradual origin. This suggests that the presence or absence of secondary laminae should be interpreted with greater caution.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to Ulrike Sienknecht and Christine Köppl for very useful comments on an earlier version, and to Zhe-Xi Luo and an anonymous reviewer for important suggestions to improve the manuscript.

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  1. Cochlear and Auditory Brainstem Physiology, Department of Neuroscience, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Cluster of Excellence “Hearing4all”, Research Centre Neurosensory Science, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Carl von Ossietzky Strasse 9-11, 26129, Oldenburg, Germany

    Geoffrey A. Manley

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Correspondence to Geoffrey A. Manley.

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Manley, G.A. The Foundations of High-Frequency Hearing in Early Mammals. J Mammal Evol 25, 155–163 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-016-9379-0

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