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Evolution of the Vertebrate Inner Ear: An Overview of Ideas

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Book cover The Evolutionary Biology of Hearing

Abstract

When considering the evolution of hearing it is useful to have an historical perspective of ideas about the origin of the vertebrate inner ear. Literature explicitly addressing this question is not particularly extensive, but it does go back more than a century. As a consequence, a small number of papers have had a large influence on how we think about the evolution of the inner ear. The purpose of our chapter is to provide a limited overview of some of these papers and to consider questions about the evolution of inner ear structures in the context of hearing. We see our contribution as a synopsis, rather than a new synthesis, of some key ideas and questions about the vertebrate inner ear and hearing. We hope that our chapter will be useful in framing questions for future research.

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Popper, A.N., Platt, C., Edds, P.L. (1992). Evolution of the Vertebrate Inner Ear: An Overview of Ideas. In: Webster, D.B., Popper, A.N., Fay, R.R. (eds) The Evolutionary Biology of Hearing. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2784-7_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-2784-7_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-7668-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-2784-7

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