Echolocation in soft-furred tree mice
Kai He, Qi Liu, Dongming Xu, Fei-Yan Qi, Jing Bai, Shui-Wang He, Peng Chen, Xin Zhou, Wanzhi Cai, Zhongzheng Chen, Zhen Liu, Xuelong Jiang, Peng Shi
Abstract
New echolocator Echolocation is a well demonstrated convergent sensory mode in bats and toothed whales. These lineages are not closely related, and this sense might be more broadly distributed than we recognize. Using a suite of approaches, He et al. show that the lineage of soft-furred tree mice (genus Typhlomys ) includes multiple echolocators. Clear evidence of the behavioral use of echolocation under fully dark conditions was supported by the convergence of ear bone morphology and hearing-related genes with other echolocating mammals. Science , aay1513, this issue p. eaay1513
Topics & Concepts
Human echolocationConvergent evolutionBiologyTree (set theory)Lineage (genetic)Evolutionary biologyZoologyGeneNeurosciencePhylogeneticsGeneticsMathematical analysisMathematicsBat Biology and Ecology StudiesMarine animal studies overviewAnimal Vocal Communication and Behavior