Abstract
Insects must wonder why mammals have ears only in their head and why they evolved only one common principle of ear design—the cochlea. Ears independently evolved at least 19 times in different insect groups and therefore can be found in completely different body parts. The morphologies and functional characteristics of insect ears are as wildly diverse as the ecological niches they exploit. In both, insects and mammals, hearing organs are constrained by the same biophysical principles and their respective molecular processes for mechanotransduction are thought to share a common evolutionary origin. Due to this, comparative knowledge of hearing across animal phyla provides crucial insight into fundamental processes of auditory transduction, especially at the biomechanical and molecular level. This review will start by comparing hearing between insects and mammals in an evolutionary context. It will then discuss current findings about sound reception will help to bridge the gap between both research fields.
Highlights
Detection of air-borne sounds can enable animals to perceive key information about conspecifics, predators and prey over long distances and with a high directional precision
Once animals ventured onto land ∼400 million years ago (MYA) it is informative to list and appreciate the Evolutionary drivers and constraints of mammal and insect ears that act on the auditory organs, including predator detection, conspecific communication and prey detection
We address the evolutionary innovations of ear physiology, through the constrains of both their evolutionary history, i.e., natural selection can only work on the range of phenotypes a species has, and the physical properties of sound propagation and detection by biological systems
Summary
Detection of air-borne sounds can enable animals to perceive key information about conspecifics, predators and prey over long distances and with a high directional precision. In this review we compare and contrast evolution and present day function of ears in insects and mammals. We discuss this in the context of evolutionary drivers and constraints that sculpted them through ∼600 million years of evolution since they separated. Once animals ventured onto land ∼400 million years ago (MYA) it is informative to list and appreciate the Evolutionary drivers and constraints of mammal and insect ears that act on the auditory organs, including predator detection, conspecific communication and prey detection. We review the function of today’s insect and mammalian ears in the sections Convergent evolution: sculpting similar biomechanical function of ears and Convergent evolution: mechanisms of sound amplification
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