Deciphering Mysticete Audiograms using a Prepared Skull
Abstract
Skull geometry and bone conduction determine the characteristics of low-frequency sound reception in baleen whales. The essential question we want to address here is: does the process of removing the soft tissues from a mysticete skull, while preserving the ligaments between the skull bones, disturb the overall geometry of the skull, and if so, by how much? We propose to CT scan the intact head of a small mysticete (gray whale) from a museum collection, then remove the soft tissues while preserving the ligaments between skull bones, and then scan it again for comparison. Once complete, these scans can be used to construct low-frequency (LF) audiograms and head-related transfer functions (directional hearing maps), which can also be used for comparative purposes.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Sep 04, 2018
- Source ID
- N000141812797
Entities
People
- Ted Cranford
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Salk Institute for Biological Studies
- United States Navy