Acoustic functions in the fish ear

A recent increase in comparative studies of the ears of non-mammalian vertebrates has revealed considerable interspecific morphological variation in the auditory sensory structures of the ears of amphibians¹² and reptiles¹³. Variation is at least as great, and perhaps greater, in fishes, an observation which is not surprising since over 25,000 species are extant. In this report, we present three major points which have emerged from the work on fishes. First, unlike the case in terrestrial vertebrates, significant differences in auditory structures among teleosts occur within a particular taxonomic group (e.g. Family or Order)¹⁶. Second, we suspect that certain similarities in inner ear structures of unrelated teleost groups reflect convergence of functional mechanisms. Both the differences and similarities in ear structure seem to have resulted from differences in the acoustic lives of various species¹⁵. Third, evidence now shows that the fish ear is involved with complex analysis of signals such as in sound discrimination and sound localization.