Further information...

Mason, M.J. & Narins, P.M. (2009) Seismic sensitivity and communication in subterranean mammals. In The Use of Vibrations in Communication: Properties, Mechanisms and Function across Taxa. O'Connell-Rodwell, C.E. (ed). Kerala: Research Signpost.

This book is in press, due to be published in late 2009. In it, we discuss the latest findings relating to seismic sensitivity in three groups of subterranean mammals, the spalacid mole-rats, the bathyergid mole-rats and the golden moles. As well as reviewing the literature, we develop some new hypotheses, among them the idea that the use of foot-drumming as a communication method might have evolved in a monophyletic clade containing the central/southern African bathyergid mole-rats (Batherygus, Georychus, Cryptomys and Fukomys), to the exclusion of Heterocephalus and Heliophobius. The chapter also includes the first published photomicrograph of the (very delicate!) middle ear apparatus of Eremitalpa granti namibensis. The chapter subheadings are:

1. Introduction

2. Seismic communication and echolocation in spalacid mole-rats

2.1 Audition or somatosensation?

2.2 Somatosensory receptors in Spalax

3. Seismic communication in bathyergid mole-rats

3.1 Potential mechanisms for seismic sensitivity in bathyergids

4. Seismic prey-detection in golden moles

4.1 The role of the middle ear in chrysochlorid seismic sensitivity

4.2 Ossicular hypertrophy in other species

5. Discussion

 

Please contact me on mjm68@hermes.cam.ac.uk if you would like to be sent a reprint copy of this chapter.