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What do Dolphins and Crickets Have in Common?

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New study shows crickets and dolphins hear in a similar way.
New study shows crickets and dolphins hear in a similar way.
New research suggests crickets and dolphins have something in common: both animals hear in a unique way.

The discovery

Scientists say a large groups of insect, which includes crickets, hear noises through an eardrum in their legs. The noise then passes through a liquid in the cricket’s body, known as a lipid, before it’s sent to the hearing organs.

“The discovery is interesting as previously only toothed whales were known to use this hearing system component, the lipid. There are many similarities in the use of lipids to amplify the sounds and help both animal groups to hear,” researcher James Windmill, of the University of Strathclyde, said in a statement.

“We don’t know why animals who are so far apart in evolutionary terms have this similarity, but it opens up the possibility that others may use the same system component,” Windmill added.

According to LiveScience, this new information helps scientists understand how sound is transmitted through the body of certain animals.

Other cool science news

Scientists recently discovered a feathery dinosaur shook its tail feathers to attract a mate. The discovery was made while scientists studied the bone structure of the two-legged creatures known as oviraptors.

“Their tails were not only very, very flexible, but quite muscular,” researcher Scott Persons, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Alberta in Canada, told LiveScience. “They could not only move them sinuously to strike a pose, but also hold it to do a muscular dance with the tail.”

Fossils lead to dinosaur dating discovery.
Fossils lead to dinosaur dating discovery.

Previous research shows these small dinosaurs had a bone crest on their head, which would also grab a mate’s attention.

“I think like peacocks, oviraptors were strutting their stuff by shaking their tail feathers to show off,” Persons said. “Between the crested head and feathered-tail shaking, oviraptors had a propensity for visual exhibitionism.”

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