ArticleBiology letters2016
Ultrasonic hearing and echolocation in the earliest toothed whales.
Article in Biology letters, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 80 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trait-Associated Gaps in IUCN Assessment and Conservation Prioritization for Echolocating Mammals.Integrative zoology · 2026Article
- Intraspecific variation of cochlear morphology in bowhead and beluga whales.Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) · 2026Article
- Cetacean evolution through the lens of ecospace modeling and disparity analyses.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Predicting ecology and hearing sensitivities in Parapontoporia-An extinct long-snouted dolphin.Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) · 2026Article
- Emerging technologies for advancing molecular and cellular research in bats.Zoological research · 2026Review
- Hearing abilities of a late-surviving archaeocete (Cetacea: Kekenodontidae), and implications for the evolution of sound in Neoceti.Journal of anatomy · 2025Article
- Variation in whale (Cetacea) inner ear anatomy reveals the early evolution of "specialized" high-frequency hearing sensitivity.Journal of anatomy · 2025Article
- Lateralized cerebellar connectivity differentiates auditory pathways in echolocating and non-echolocating whales.PloS one · 2025Article
- Lactobacillus for ribosome peptide editing cancer.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2023Review
- Molecular convergence and transgenic evidence suggest a single origin of laryngeal echolocation in bats.iScience · 2022Article
- What are the limits on whale ear bone size? Non-isometric scaling of the cetacean bulla.PeerJ · 2021Article
- High-throughput microCT scanning of small specimens: preparation, packing, parameters and post-processing.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Wonky whales: the evolution of cranial asymmetry in cetaceans.BMC biology · 2020Article
- Extensive Diversity and Disparity of the Early Miocene Platanistoids (Cetacea, Odontoceti) in the Southeastern Pacific (Chilcatay Formation, Peru).Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Article
- Article
- Convergent evolution in toothed whale cochleae.BMC evolutionary biology · 2019Article
- Cetacean Skull Telescoping Brings Evolution of Cranial Sutures into Focus.Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007) · 2019Review
- Evidence for convergent evolution of ultrasonic hearing in toothed whales (Cetacea: Odontoceti).Biology letters · 2019Article
- Genomic and functional evidence reveals molecular insights into the origin of echolocation in whales.Science advances · 2018Article
- The bony labyrinth of toothed whales reflects both phylogeny and habitat preferences.Scientific reports · 2018Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The evolution of biosonar (production of high-frequency sound and reception of its echo) was a key innovation of toothed whales and dolphins (Odontoceti) that facilitated phylogenetic diversification and rise to ecological predominance. Yet exactly when high-frequency hearing first evolved in odontocete history remains a fundamental question in cetacean biology. Here, we show that archaic odontocetes had a cochlea specialized for sensing high-frequency sound, as exemplified by an Oligocene xenorophid, one of the earliest diverging stem groups. This specialization is not as extreme as that seen in the crown clade. Paired with anatomical correlates for high-frequency signal production in Xenorophidae, this is strong evidence that the most archaic toothed whales possessed a functional biosonar system, and that this signature adaptation of odontocetes was acquired at or soon after their origin.
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