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The Evolutionary Biology of Hearing pp 717–750Cite as

The Marine Mammal Ear: Specializations for Aquatic Audition and Echolocation

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Abstract

“Marine mammal” is a broad categorization for over 150 species that have one feature in common: the ability to function effectively in an aquatic environment. They have no single common aquatic ancestor and are distributed among four orders (see Appendix 1). Each group arose during the Eocene in either the temperate northern Pacific Ocean or in the Tethys Sea, a paleolithic body of water from which the Mediterranean and middle eastern limnetic basins were formed. Otariids (sea lions), odobenids (walrus), and marine fissipeds (sea otters) developed primarily in the Pacific, while the earliest cetacean (whale), sirenian (manatee and dugong), and phocid (true seal) fossils come from regions bordering Tethys Sea remnants (Kellogg 1936; Domning 1982; Barnes, Domning, and Ray 1985). The level of adaptation to the marine environment varies in marine mammals; many are amphibious and only the Cetacea and Sirenia are fully aquatic, unable to move, reproduce, or feed on land.

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Authors
  1. Darlene R. Ketten
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Louisiana State University Medical Center, New Orleans, LA, 70112, USA

    Douglas B. Webster

  2. Department of Zoology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Arthur N. Popper

  3. Parmly Hearing Institute and Loyola University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60626, USA

    Richard R. Fay

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© 1992 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

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Ketten, D.R. (1992). The Marine Mammal Ear: Specializations for Aquatic Audition and Echolocation. In: Webster, D.B., Popper, A.N., Fay, R.R. (eds) The Evolutionary Biology of Hearing. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2784-7_44

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2784-7_44

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-7668-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-2784-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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