Laboratoire de Morphologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, Institut de Chimie, Bât. B6c, Université de Liège, B-4000, Liège, Belgium.
Aquarium-Muséum, Département de Biologie, Ecologie et Evolution, Université de Liège, Institut de Zoologie, Bât I1, 22 quai Van Beneden, B - 4020, Liège, Belgium.
Sci Rep. 2018 Jan 19;8(1):1281. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-19812-1.
Like all otophysan fishes, serrasalmids (piranhas and relatives) possess a Weberian apparatus that improves their hearing capacities. We compared the hearing abilities among eight species of serrasalmids having different life-history traits: herbivorous vs. carnivorous and vocal vs. mute species. We also made 3D reconstructions of the auditory system to detect potential morphological variations associated with hearing ability. The hearing structures were similar in overall shape and position. All the species hear in the same frequency range and only slight differences were found in hearing thresholds. The eight species have their range of best hearing in the lower frequencies (50-900 Hz). In vocal serrasalmids, the range of best hearing covers the frequency spectrum of their sounds. However, the broad overlap in hearing thresholds among species having different life-history traits (herbivorous vs. carnivorous and vocal vs. non-vocal species) suggests that hearing ability is likely not related to the capacity to emit acoustic signals or to the diet, i.e. the ability to detect sounds is not associated with a given kind of food. The inner ear appears to be highly conservative in this group suggesting that it is shaped by phylogenetic history or by other kinds of constraints such as predator avoidance.
与所有的骨鳔总目鱼类一样，脂鲤科鱼类（水虎鱼及其亲缘鱼类）拥有韦伯氏器，这增强了它们的听力能力。我们比较了具有不同生活史特征的 8 种脂鲤科鱼类的听力能力：草食性与肉食性、发声与不发声的物种。我们还对听觉系统进行了 3D 重建，以检测与听力能力相关的潜在形态变化。听觉结构在整体形状和位置上相似。所有物种的听觉范围都在相同的频率范围内，只有听力阈值略有差异。这 8 个物种的最佳听力范围在低频（50-900 Hz）。在发声的脂鲤科鱼类中，最佳听力范围涵盖了它们声音的频谱。然而，具有不同生活史特征（草食性与肉食性、发声与不发声的物种）的物种之间的听力阈值广泛重叠表明，听力能力可能与发出声音的能力或饮食无关，即检测声音的能力与特定食物无关。内耳在这个群体中似乎高度保守，这表明它是由系统发育历史或其他类型的限制（如躲避捕食者）形成的。
