Article (Scientific journals)
Size and shape variations of the bony components of sperm whale cochleae
Schnitzler, Joseph; Frederich, Bruno; Früchtnicht, Sven et al.
2017In Scientific Reports, 7, p. 46734
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Keywords :
Cetaceans; morphology; shape; geometric morphometrics; auditory organ; ear
Abstract :
[en] Several mass strandings of sperm whales occurred in the North Sea during January and February 2016. Twelve animals were necropsied and sampled around 48h after their discovery on German coasts of Schleswig Holstein. The present study aims to explore the morphological variation of the primary sensory organ of sperm whales, the left and right auditory system, using high-resolution computerised tomography imaging. We performed a quantitative analysis of size and shape of cochleae using landmark-based geometric morphometrics to reveal inter-individual anatomical variations. A hierarchical cluster analysis based on thirty-one external morphometric characters classified these 12 individuals in two stranding clusters. A relative amount of shape variation could be attributable to geographical differences among stranding locations and clusters. Our geometric data allowed the discrimination of distinct bachelor schools among sperm whales that stranded on German coasts. We argue that the cochleae are individually shaped, varying greatly in dimensions and that the intra-specific variation observed in the morphology of the cochleae may partially reflect their affiliation to their bachelor school. There are increasing concerns about the impact of noise on cetaceans and describing the auditory periphery of odontocetes is a key conservation issue to further assess the effect of noise pollution.
Disciplines :
Zoology
Author, co-author :
Schnitzler, Joseph ;  Université de Liège > Département de Biologie, Ecologie et Evolution > Océanographie biologique
Frederich, Bruno  ;  Université de Liège > Département de Biologie, Ecologie et Evolution > Océanographie biologique
Früchtnicht, Sven
Schaffeld, Tobias
Baltzer, Johannes
Ruser, Andreas
Siebert, Ursula
Language :
English
Title :
Size and shape variations of the bony components of sperm whale cochleae
Publication date :
25 April 2017
Journal title :
Scientific Reports
eISSN :
2045-2322
Publisher :
Nature Publishing Group, London, United Kingdom
Volume :
7
Pages :
46734
Peer reviewed :
Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi
Funders :
DFG - Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [DE]
Available on ORBi :
since 30 April 2017

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