RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Convergent Evolution Between Insect and Mammalian Audition
JF Science
JO Science
FD American Association for the Advancement of Science
SP 968
OP 971
DO 10.1126/science.1225271
VO 338
IS 6109
A1 Montealegre-Z., Fernando
A1 Jonsson, Thorin
A1 Robson-Brown, Kate A.
A1 Postles, Matthew
A1 Robert, Daniel
YR 2012
UL http://science.sciencemag.org/content/338/6109/968.abstract
AB In mammalian ears, a chain of biophysical events allows for the translation of airborne acoustic energy into mechanical vibrations that can be detected by mechanosensory cells in the cochlear. Mammalian ears have been considered largely unique in this transformation because it is the delicate, mammalian-specific, bones of the middle ear that facilitate this transmission, known as impedence conversion. In most other vertebrates the bones that make up the middle ear function as part of the lower jaw, limiting the potential for vertebrate convergence in this process. However, Montealegre-Z. et al. (p. 968, see the Perspective by Hoy) show that the rainforest katydid, an insect with ears on its hind legs, have converged on a similar three step impedence conversion process using a unique tympanum-lever organ. This convergence, across millions of years of evolutionary distance, shows the flexibility of morphology to adapt to biophysical challenges.In mammals, hearing is dependent on three canonical processing stages: (i) an eardrum collecting sound, (ii) a middle ear impedance converter, and (iii) a cochlear frequency analyzer. Here, we show that some insects, such as rainforest katydids, possess equivalent biophysical mechanisms for auditory processing. Although katydid ears are among the smallest in all organisms, these ears perform the crucial stage of air-to-liquid impedance conversion and signal amplification, with the use of a distinct tympanal lever system. Further along the chain of hearing, spectral sound analysis is achieved through dispersive wave propagation across a fluid substrate, as in the mammalian cochlea. Thus, two phylogenetically remote organisms, katydids and mammals, have evolved a series of convergent solutions to common biophysical problems, despite their reliance on very different morphological substrates.