Correlations between form, function and behaviour: the inner ears of birds and reptiles

形式、功能和行为之间的相关性：鸟类和爬行动物的内耳

• 批准号: NE/E008380/1
• 负责人: Paul Barrett
• 金额: $ 7.67万
• 依托单位: Natural History Museum
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2007 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FE008380%2F1
• 关键词: Correlations; between; form; function; behaviour

The vertebrate inner ear is a complex structure that incorporates the organs of balance and hearing. Both senses are essential to the normal functioning of an organism: unsurprisingly, the inner ears of living vertebrates have been studied intensively in terms of their soft anatomy and their physiological/neurological mechanisms, and the behavioural and general biological implications of ear function have been investigated thoroughly. The soft tissues are housed in bony structures that form part of the side walls of the braincase at the back of the skull. Few studies have attempted to seek correlations between the properties of the bony structures (e.g. volume, maximum length/width, shape), hearing ability or sense of balance, and the resulting behavioural repertoire of an animal. From a palaeontologist's perspective, this is an unfortunate omission as, in most cases, fossils only yield information on the hard anatomy of an organism. Partly as a result of this situation, the inner ears of many extinct vertebrates have received little attention hitherto and detailed studies have only become possible recently with the advent of non-destructive imaging technology. We propose a proof-of-concept study to investigate the utility of inner ear morphology in assessing the behaviour and auditory performance of extinct reptiles and birds. We will test whether differences in reptile/bird inner ear anatomy can be explained by differences in behaviour, vocalisation, acoustic function and social organisation. This test will be based upon an analysis of the inner ear anatomy of 40 living reptiles and birds, which will be chosen to represent a wide range of vocal and auditory behaviours. Data on inner ear anatomy will be collected using X-ray Computerised Tomography (CT), which will allow us to build detailed 3-D virtual models of the ear's bony structures. Correlations will be sought between the dimensions of the lagena (that part of the inner ear housing the organ of hearing / the basilar papilla), the known auditory abilities of an animal (e.g. range of sound frequencies detectable, sensitivity), and the range of behaviours that the animal exhibits (e.g. those that use vocal communication versus those that do not). Combination of these different data sources (inner ear bony anatomy, ear function and animal behaviour) is a novel approach and will provide a rigorous basis for inferring behaviour in extinct animals. If no correlations exist between ear anatomy, hearing ability and behaviour this will allow us to falsify existing hypotheses of hearing function in extinct reptiles and birds. However, if correlations are identified this project will act as a pilot study for future investigations on hearing and behaviour in a variety of extinct species (including non-avian dinosaurs and early amniotes, for example). In addition, the project will provide a large amount of new anatomical information on the inner ears of living reptiles and birds, which will be of great value to auditory biologists, zoologists and systematists.

脊椎动物的内耳是一个复杂的结构，包括平衡和听觉器官。这两种感觉对于生物体的正常功能都是必不可少的：毫不奇怪，活体脊椎动物的内耳已经在其软解剖和生理/神经机制方面进行了深入研究，并且对耳功能的行为和一般生物学含义进行了彻底的研究。软组织被安置在骨骼结构中，这些骨骼结构构成颅骨后部脑壳侧壁的一部分。很少有研究试图寻找动物骨骼结构特性（例如体积、最大长度/宽度、形状）、听力或平衡感与由此产生的行为技能之间的相关性。从古生物学家的角度来看，这是一个不幸的遗漏，因为在大多数情况下，化石只能提供生物体硬解剖结构的信息。部分由于这种情况，许多已灭绝的脊椎动物的内耳迄今为止很少受到关注，直到最近无损成像技术的出现才有可能进行详细的研究。我们提出了一项概念验证研究，以调查内耳形态学在评估已灭绝爬行动物和鸟类的行为和听觉表现中的效用。我们将测试爬行动物/鸟类内耳解剖结构的差异是否可以用行为、发声、声学功能和社会组织的差异来解释。这项测试将基于对40种现存爬行动物和鸟类内耳解剖结构的分析，这些动物将被选中代表广泛的声音和听觉行为。内耳解剖数据将使用x射线计算机断层扫描（CT）收集，这将使我们能够建立详细的耳骨结构三维虚拟模型。将寻求lagena（内耳容纳听觉器官/基底乳头的部分）的尺寸，动物已知的听觉能力（例如可探测的声音频率范围，灵敏度）和动物表现出的行为范围（例如使用声音交流的动物与不使用声音交流的动物）之间的相关性。结合这些不同的数据来源（内耳骨骼解剖，耳功能和动物行为）是一种新颖的方法，将为推断灭绝动物的行为提供严格的基础。如果耳朵解剖结构、听力能力和行为之间不存在相关性，这将使我们能够伪造关于已灭绝爬行动物和鸟类听力功能的现有假设。然而，如果确定了相关性，该项目将作为未来各种灭绝物种（例如，包括非鸟类恐龙和早期羊膜动物）的听力和行为调查的试点研究。此外，该项目还将提供大量关于现存爬行动物和鸟类内耳的新的解剖学信息，对听觉生物学家、动物学家和系统学家具有重要价值。

项目成果

Avian cerebellar floccular fossa size is not a proxy for flying ability in birds.

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0067176
• 发表时间: 2013
• 期刊: PloS one
• 影响因子: 3.7
• 作者: Walsh SA;Iwaniuk AN;Knoll MA;Bourdon E;Barrett PM;Milner AC;Nudds RL;Abel RL;Sterpaio PD
• 通讯作者: Sterpaio PD

Inner ear anatomy is a proxy for deducing auditory capability and behaviour in reptiles and birds.

内耳解剖学是推断爬行动物和鸟类听觉能力和行为的代理。

• DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2008.1390
• 发表时间: 2009
• 期刊: Proceedings. Biological sciences
• 作者: Walsh SA

Floccular fossa size is not a reliable proxy of ecology and behaviour in vertebrates.

• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-01981-0
• 发表时间: 2017-05-17
• 期刊: Scientific reports
• 影响因子: 4.6
• 作者: Ferreira-Cardoso S;Araújo R;Martins NE;Martins GG;Walsh S;Martins RMS;Kardjilov N;Manke I;Hilger A;Castanhinha R
• 通讯作者: Castanhinha R

Halcyornis toliapicus (Aves: Lower Eocene, England) indicates advanced neuromorphology in Mesozoic Neornithes

Halcyornis toliapicus（鸟纲：下始新世，英格兰）表明中生代新鸟的高级神经形态学

• DOI: 10.1080/14772019.2010.513703
• 发表时间: 2011
• 期刊: Journal of Systematic Palaeontology
• 影响因子: 2.6
• 作者: Walsh S

Insights from Comparative Hearing Research

• DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4614-9077-7
• 发表时间: 2014
• 作者: C. Köppl