Скачать или смотреть Evolutionary and allometric insights into auditory sensitivity and morphology of... [James, Logan S]

Logan S James, Michael J Ryan

Many complex behaviors in animals require coordination of disparate components. Acoustic communication is one such system, requiring coordination of both the receiver and emitter systems. Researchers have long speculated as to whether the components of these systems maintain their coordination during evolution by simple allometric relationships or by independent evolution. Here, we compare datasets to ask whether components of the frog acoustic communication system change primarily as a byproduct of changes to body size or evolve in tandem independently from body size across the phylogeny. We compared aspects of frogs' auditory morphology (tympanum area and hair cell counts) to measures of sound sensitivity as well as call dominant frequency. We find robust correlations between body size and all other features measured, when controlling for phylogeny. We also find preliminary evidence that the number of hair cells in the amphibian papilla is related to sensitivity and call dominant frequency. These data highlight the importance of body size in frog communication, and that morphology can relate to communication beyond what can be explained by body size and phylogeny.