Frogs that hear with their mouth
Monday, September 2, 2013 - 17:30
in Biology & Nature
This is an illustration how a Gardiner's frog can hear with its mouth. Gardiner's frogs from the Seychelles islands, one of the smallest frogs in the world, do not possess a middle ear with an eardrum yet can croak themselves, and hear other frogs. An international team of scientists using X-rays has now solved this mystery and established that these frogs are using their mouth cavity and tissue to transmit sound to their inner ears. The results are published in PNAS on September 2, 2013.