Originally published on September 6, 2013
Scientists discovered the tiny Gardiner's frogs which was long assumed to be deaf, is actually able to hear with its mouths.
Gardiner's frogs are found in the rainforests of the Seychelles, a series of 115 small islands in the Indian Ocean. They can grow to a maximum of just 11 millimeters and are among the tiniest in the world. This species of frog does not possess a middle ear with an eardrum and is thus thought to be deaf.
The team of scientists, led by Renaud Boistel from CNRS and the University of Poitiers as well as scientists from a number of other French institutions and the Nature Protection trust of Seychelles published the findings of the frogs can use their mouth cavity and tissue to transmit sound to their inner ears.
To investigate, the team used highly sensitive X-ray imaging techniques at the European Synchrotron Research Facility in Grenoble, which allows them to examine the frog's anatomy in detail and to see which body parts might act the role of the middle ear to transmit sound wave signals via nerves to the brain. The team tested them by playing pre-recorded sounds of frog calls, and found the male Gardiner's frogs croaked back as if in conversation, proving they could hear.They also found the frog's mouth resonates at a frequency of 5,738 Hertz which causes the mouth to reverberate strongly, turning it into an amplifier. X-rays showed that sound travels from the mouth to the inner ear, thanks to the thinner and few tissue layers between the mouth and inner ear.
Scientists hope the discovery of this novel hearing mechanism could be applied to help certain types of human deafness.
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