Raising the Tone -- Ultrasonic communication in frogs - multiple independent evolutions

Nature ^ | 3-16-06 | Feng et al;

[tallhappy]

Frogs can communicate via sonar.

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Editors summary and abstract follow:

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Editor's Summary 16 March 2006

Raising The Tone

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Some bats, dolphins and rodents are notable among vertebrates in being able to produce and detect ultrasonic frequencies. Now for the first time an amphibian can be added to that select list. The spectacular bird-like sounds made by a type of Chinese torrent frog were known to edge into the ultrasonic range: now these frogs are shown to use ultrasonics as a form of communication. The males do at least, during competition for territory. Frogs are a long way, evolutionarily speaking, from the other known users of ultrasonics so this ability seems to have evolved independently several times. It is possible, too, that many other species are chatting away in the ultrasonic waveband, but that nobody has looked for them.

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Nature 440, 333-336 (16 March 2006)

doi:10.1038/nature04416; Received 27 September 2005; ; Accepted 10 November 2005

Ultrasonic communication in frogs Albert S. Feng1,5, Peter M. Narins2,5, Chun-He Xu3, Wen-Yu Lin1, Zu-Lin Yu4, Qiang Qiu4, Zhi-Min Xu4 and Jun-Xian Shen4,5

Top of pageAmong vertebrates, only microchiropteran bats, cetaceans and some rodents are known to produce and detect ultrasounds (frequencies greater than 20 kHz) for the purpose of communication and/or echolocation, suggesting that this capacity might be restricted to mammals1, 2. Amphibians, reptiles and most birds generally have limited hearing capacity, with the ability to detect and produce sounds below 12 kHz. Here we report evidence of ultrasonic communication in an amphibian, the concave-eared torrent frog (Amolops tormotus) from Huangshan Hot Springs, China. Males of A. tormotus produce diverse bird-like melodic calls with pronounced frequency modulations that often contain spectral energy in the ultrasonic range3, 4. To determine whether A. tormotus communicates using ultrasound to avoid masking by the wideband background noise of local fast-flowing streams, or whether the ultrasound is simply a by-product of the sound-production mechanism, we conducted acoustic playback experiments in the frogs' natural habitat. We found that the audible as well as the ultrasonic components of an A. tormotus call can evoke male vocal responses. Electrophysiological recordings from the auditory midbrain confirmed the ultrasonic hearing capacity of these frogs and that of a sympatric species facing similar environmental constraints. This extraordinary upward extension into the ultrasonic range of both the harmonic content of the advertisement calls and the frog's hearing sensitivity is likely to have co-evolved in response to the intense, predominantly low-frequency ambient noise from local streams. Because amphibians are a distinct evolutionary lineage from microchiropterans and cetaceans (which have evolved ultrasonic hearing to minimize congestion in the frequency bands used for sound communication5 and to increase hunting efficacy in darkness2), ultrasonic perception in these animals represents a new example of independent evolution.

[tallhappy]

Bon apetit.

[llevrok]

Ralph Kramden, to his wife Alice when "showing off" for a childhood friend in a fancy restaurant -

"Don't just order the frog legs, Alice. Order the whole frog !!!!! "

[King Prout]

interesting.

ping. list-worthy?

[PatrickHenry]

ping. list-worthy?

Thanks for the ping. This thread isn't for the list.

[tallhappy]

Hey king, Why would you need an idiot like this guy to tell you if something is worth while or not?

And of course this, an actual scientific article of new research in the top journal in the world, would not be "for the list" because it is not a science list.

Hilarious.

[tallhappy]

You funny. I'm laughing literally.

[CarolinaGuitarman]

*I'm always polite, you idiot!* Placemarker.

[King Prout]

Hey king, Why would you need an idiot like this guy (Patrick Henry) to tell you if something is worth while or not?

in case you were not made aware of this: Now Hear This: NO personal attacks. - Posted on 03/15/2006 3:22:21 PM EST by Jim Robinson

As I got here and adjudged the article "interesting" before PH, and indeed pinged him myself, quite evidently I do *not* "need an idiot like this guy" to tell me if something is worth reading.

PH's lists are his to use or not, at his discretion. Not at mine. Not at yours.