Abstract
A comparison is made between a mammalian, monotreme species and an actinopterygian fish that have each, indepen dently, evolved a similar, spoonbill-shaped rostral bill organ whose array of electroreceptors provides sufficient spatial information for prey capture in a freshwater environment without the need for visual cues. The platypus, Ornithorhyncus anatinus (Monotremata, Mammalia), has approximately 40,000 electroreceptors arranged in parasagittal rows on the bill organ. By means of behavioral and electrophysiological recording experiments in platypus, it has been shown that this array of electroreceptors can trigger an accurately directed head saccade to intersect aquatic prey that emit electrical signals. The threshold field strength for prey detection by platypus is 50 microvolts/cm, two orders of magnitude more sensitive than individual electroreceptors. The paddlefish, Polyodon spathula (Osteichthyes, Actinopterygii), can similarly execute a lateral head saccade to intersect prey, with a threshold field strength around 10 microvolts/cm, considerably more sensitive than the presumed sensitivity of individual electroreceptors. The remarkable anatomical and behavioral similarities between these two independent electroreceptive systems are described and discussed. Major differences between the two bill-organ systems include the mechanism of transduction at the electroreceptors and a prominent cooperative role played by 60,000 mechanoreceptors that are interdigitated among the electroreceptors in the platypus bill but not in the paddlefish.
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Pettigrew, J.D., Wilkens, L. (2003). Paddlefish and Platypus: Parallel Evolution of Passive Electroreception in a Rostral Bill Organ. 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_22
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-22628-6_22
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