Scientists solve mystery of how seals hear in air and underwater
Scientists at the Natural History Museum in London have discovered that seals use specialized cavernous tissue in their middle ears to hear effectively both in air and underwater. This biological adaptation allows the tissue to swell with blood during dives, facilitating sound transmission in water.
Why it matters
This discovery solves a long-standing biological mystery regarding how mammals adapt their sensory systems to extreme environmental shifts.
The discovery has been made by scientists at the Natural History Museum in London, using micro-CT scans of more than 200 living and fossil seal specimens from the museum's collection - one of the finest of its kind anywhere in the world.
Seals are the only mammals capable of hearing equally well in both air and water. Now, after decades of scientific puzzlement, researchers have worked out how they do it… and the answer lies in a remarkable biological adaptation that evolved more than 26 million years ago.
The discovery has been made by scientists at the Natural History Museum in London, using micro-CT scans of more than 200 living and fossil seal specimens from the museum’s collection – one of the finest of its kind anywhere in the world.
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