Abstract
To elucidate the weakly electric and earth’s magnetic sensory capabilities of sharks and rays and to introduce the concept of inertial hearing in the acoustic near field, this chapter discusses the physical features of the underwater world, the particular receptivities of the sense organs, and the spatial information the animals seek to orient at sea and to arrive at their prey. The objective is to establish the logical connections between the directional cues in the natural environment and the orientational responses they elicit from the animals. The features of the underwater world are presented in their most simple form, just as they are detected, processed, and perceived by the animals. In this chapter, we observe early fishes proficiently practice the laws of physics, purely from eons of experience. The remarkable similarity in the electric and lowfrequency acoustic fields of underwater objects is emphasized to reveal the close relationship between the two sensory modalities.
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Kalmijn, A.J. (2003). Physical Principles of Electric, Magnetic, and Near-Field Acoustic Orientation. In: Collin, S.P., Marshall, N.J. (eds) Sensory Processing in Aquatic Environments. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-22628-6_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-22628-6_4
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
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