Crocodiles are full of surprises, but they are closer Inspecting their heads It revealed that the Predators were hiding what amounts to an Aquaman-style superpower.
“New research shows that crocodiles… You can hear underwater,” the University of Georgia Coastal Ecology Laboratory reported in a Jan. 15 Facebook post highlighting the study.
“The crocodile can adjust its hearing to land or water by adjusting how much the tympanic membrane stretches. Furthermore, they believe this is part of the crocodile's diving reflex, and that it occurs automatically when the crocodile dives underwater.”
This doesn't mean American alligators hear as well underwater as they do on land, researchers say Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine It concluded in Missouri.
It just means that they “hear better underwater than other animals,” the Coastal Ecology Laboratory reports.
This is in addition to the ability to see underwater, due to the presence of a second set of eyelids.”Serves as underwater goggles“say the experts.
The report notes that the newfound hearing ability makes perfect sense for an aquatic reptile known to stalk its prey “on land, at the surface of the water, and underwater.”
Kirksville College scientists came to their conclusions after dissecting the ears of nine euthanized alligators “to learn how the ear muscles work.”
Test subjects, both juveniles and adults, were purchased commercially or obtained through the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. The largest was 9 feet, 9 inches tall, the report said.
Details of the team's discoveries Published by the American Anatomical Society in an article titled “The Anatomical Basis of Amphibian Hearing in the American Alligator.”
The study noted that much about the crocodile's ear is unusual, including the fact that it is located beneath the flaps and that the eardrum “is located deep within the surface of the skull.”
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