Abstract
Research over the last decade has added hugely to our understanding of gecko ears. Their papillae are unique both in their general anatomy (patterns of hair cell orientations) as well as their detailed anatomy (specific coupling of single hair-\ cell rows via sallets). The correlations of their anatomy to specific aspects of their auditory physiology (e.g., reversed tonotopic organization) have helped greatly in the elucidation of the evolution of lizard papillae in general. Recent studies of pygopod geckos suggest that in some way, the likely high-frequency responses of preaxial hair cells are transmitted to postaxial hair cells and thus to their afferent fibers. This should stimulate further studies of gecko papillae, in order to answer the question as to the function(s) of preaxial hair cells. In addition, the matching of vocalization spectra and hearing thresholds in Delma should stimulate further studies as to the possible coevolution of hearing and vocalization in other gecko groups. The wide range of gecko subfamilies provides enough evolutionary variation to make such studies possible and rewarding.
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Manley, G.A., Köppl, C., Sienknecht, U.J. (2013). The Remarkable Ears of Geckos and Pygopods. In: Köppl, C., Manley, G., Popper, A., Fay, R. (eds) Insights from Comparative Hearing Research. Springer Handbook of Auditory Research, vol 49. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/2506_2013_27
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