Patterns of variation in the tympanic bulla of tuco-tucos (Rodentia,Ctenomyidae, Ctenomys) |
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Authors: | Gabriel Francescoli Verónica Quirici Raúl Sobrero |
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Institution: | 1.Sección Etología, Facultad de Ciencias,Universidad de la República Oriental del Uruguay,Montevideo,Uruguay;2.Departamento de Ciencias Ecológicas, Facultad de Ciencias,Universidad de Chile,Santiago,Chile;3.Departamento de Ecología,Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile,Santiago,Chile |
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Abstract: | As subterranean rodents live in burrows and are constrained by the physics of their environment to vocalize, mainly in low
frequencies, their expanded middle ear cavities are associated with enhanced lower-frequency hearing. Previous literature
has widely acknowledged inflated tympanic bulla as a character to be found in the majority of the Ctenomys species. To explore the morphology of Ctenomys tympanic bulla, we studied a sample of 669 skulls, obtained from 21 species, for tympanic bulla size, volume, and internal
structure. The study determined that bullar inflation does not seem to be the rule in Ctenomys and that the relationship between bullar size (volume) and skull size do not correspond to the phylogeny based on cytochrome
b sequences thus probably being a species-specific adaptive characteristic. We also found that the internal bullar structure
differs between taxa, depending on the relative contributions of cancellous (alveolar) and septate patterns to the partitioning
of the bulla. |
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