Researchers discover that geckos use a mechanism usually associated with balance to sense vibrations, leading to new insights about how animals hear and feel their surroundings.
University of Maryland biologists identified a hidden sensory talent in geckos that's shaking up what we thought we knew about animal hearing.on October 4, 2024, the researchers revealed that geckos use the saccule -- a part of their inner ear traditionally associated with maintaining balance and body positioning -- to detect low-frequency vibrations.
"A lot of snakes and lizards were thought to be 'mute' or 'deaf' in the sense that they do not vocalize sounds or hear sounds well," Han explained."But it turns out they could potentially be communicating via vibrational signals using this sensory pathway instead, which really changes the way scientists have thought about animal perception overall."
"Think about when you're at a live rock concert," Carr said."It's so loud that you can feel your whole head and body vibrate in the sound field. You can feel the music, rather than just hearing it. That feeling suggests that the human vestibular system may be stimulated during those loud concerts, meaning our sense of hearing and balance may also be linked closely."
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