Ultrasonic communication in frogs
2006/03/17 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia
Amolops tormotus, so called the Chinese frog that surprises the scientist. It is also known as the concave ear frog of the torrents, well descriptive. However, it is appropriate to unite in a single sentence some of the peculiarities of the frog. In fact, he lives in torrents and has a very peculiar ear, lying inward.
But there are more curiosities: at first the researchers studying the frog announced that it sings, then they realized that it emitted ultrasounds and now they have demonstrated their ability to receive and respond to the ultrasounds emitted by another. It seems that the ability to listen to ultrasound is due to the appearance of the ear.
Researchers at the University of Illinois have studied the frog and have seen that males respond to the sound emitted by another frog, both to what can be heard and to what is emitted in ultrasound. According to the researchers, being able to do so is of great help to communicate in the environment in which they live, since the sound of the water covers all the others in the torrents.
Bats, marine mammals and some rodents also have the ability to communicate by ultrasound, but it is the first time they see it in a non-mammal animal. The results of the study have been published in the scientific journal Nature.
Photo: Albert Feng, University of Illinois.
