a new acoustic portal into the odontocete ear and vibrational analysis of the tympanoperiotic complex一个新的声学门户的odontocete耳朵和振动分析tympanoperiotic复杂.pdfVIP

A New Acoustic Portal into the Odontocete Ear and Vibrational Analysis of the Tympanoperiotic Complex 1 2 3,4 Ted W. Cranford *, Petr Krysl , Mats Amundin 1 Department of Biology, San Diego State University, San Diego, California, United States of America, 2 Department of Structural Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States of America, 3 Department of Research and Education, Kolmarden Wildlife Park, Kolmarden, Sweden, 4 Department of Physics, ¨ ¨ Chemistry and Biology, Linkopings University, Linkoping, Sweden Abstract Global concern over the possible deleterious effects of noise on marine organisms was catalyzed when toothed whales stranded and died in the presence of high intensity sound. The lack of knowledge about mechanisms of hearing in toothed whales prompted our group to study the anatomy and build a finite element model to simulate sound reception in odontocetes. The primary auditory pathway in toothed whales is an evolutionary novelty, compensating for the impedance mismatch experienced by whale ancestors as they moved from hearing in air to hearing in water. The mechanism by which high-frequency vibrations pass from the low density fats of the lower jaw into the dense bones of the auditory apparatus is a key to understanding odontocete hearing. Here we identify a new acoustic portal into the ear complex, the tympanoperiotic complex (TPC) and a plausible mechanism by which sound is transduced into the bony components. We reveal the intact anatomic geometry using CT scanning, and test functional preconceptions using finite element modeling and vibrational analysis. We show that the mandibular fat bodies bifurcate posteriorly, attaching to the TPC