The Auditory and Vestibular Organs of Marine Mammals

The broad spectrum of the species studied and the application of modern anatomical, optical and bio-mechanical methods allowed the author to describe previously unknown structural features of the peripheral part of the auditory system in animals with a varied specialization of hearing.

The influence of ecological and evolutionary factors on the structural organization of the auditory organ was analyzed.

The ecological and morphological approach was useful in revealing the fact that the peculiarities in the auditory organ structure in different mammalian groups were stipulated by the animals' adaptation to definite acoustic features of habitat.

Morphological and functional adaptations of the peripheral part of the auditory system directed to the optimization of auditory sensitivity in different habitats proved to be principal in evolution. Particular attention was paid to the less widely studied orders of mammals (pinnipeds, cetaceans), being of interest both from the point of view of their echolocation abilities (in dolphins) and the influence of water habitat on the morphological adaptation development in the structure of the peripheral part of the auditory analyzer in semi-aquatic and aquatic species.

This book is illustrated with a large number of original micro-photos, pictures, drawings and is aimed at morphologists, zoologists, ecologists and specialists, working in the field of bionics, as well as students and tutors of biological and medical departments in institutes and universities.

Galina N. Solntseva is a Professor at the Laboratory for Bioacoustics in the A.

N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution Russian Academy of Sciences.

She is a well-known specialist in the field of the evolutionary morphology of hearing.

G.N. Solntseva has studied the peripheral part of the auditory system in representatives of different ecological groups of mammals for many years. She has taken part in numerous marine expeditions in the Black, Caspian, White Seas and in the Sea of Okhotsk in order to collect morphological material and this has allowed her to gather a unique (in terms of volume and species diversity) collection of morphological material on marine mammals.

G.N. Solntseva is the author of more than a hundred scientific works in this field, including the monograph "The Auditory System of Mammals", issued in 1979 by the publishing house "Nauka".