News Paleontology

Primitive whales had mediocre hearing

Fossils suggest highly specialized sounds whales use to communicate were not an early innovation

whale

HEAR ME NOW Modern whales hear either really high or really low frequency sounds, depending on the species. A new study suggests that their earliest whale ancestors may have been limited in their hearing.

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By Helen Thompson

- More than 2 years ago

Early on, whale hearing may have been ho-hum.

Unlike today’s whales that specialize in making  — and hearing — very high- or low-pitched sounds, early whales’ ears probably picked up noises somewhere in the middle, paleontologists Mickaël Mourlam and Maeva Orliac report June 8 in Current Biology.