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Comparative Anatomy Of The Bony Labyrinth Of Extant And Extinct Porpoises (Cetacea: Phocoenidae), Rachel A. Racicot, William Gearty, Naoki Kohno, John J. Flynn

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

The inner ear anatomy of cetaceans, now more readily accessible by means of nondestructive high-resolution X-ray computed tomographic (CT) scanning, provides a window into their acoustic abilities and ecological preferences. Inner ear labyrinths also may be a source for additional morphological characters for phylogenetic analyses. In this study, we explore digital endocasts of the inner ear labyrinths of representative species of extinct and extant porpoises (Mammalia: Cetacea: Phocoenidae), a clade of some of the smallest odontocete cetaceans, which produce some of the highest-frequency clicks for biosonar and communication. Metrics used to infer hearing ranges based on cochlear morphology indicate that …