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A new study reveals the surprisingly convergent evolution in the inner ear of mammals. An international research team led by Nicole Grunstra from the University of Vienna and Anne Le Maître from the Konrad Lorenz Institute (KLI) for Evolution and Cognition Research (Klosterneuburg) showed that a group of highly divergent mammals known as Afrotheria and distantly related, but ecologically very similar mammals independently evolved similar inner ear shapes.

The study is published in Nature Communications.

The vertebrate inner ear, packed inside the bony skull, is important for hearing and balance. Diversity in its complex shape among animals has long been thought to reflect adaptations to different environments and locomotor behaviors. At the same time, the shape of the inner ear also tracks evolutionary descent, with closely related species tending to have more similar inner ear shapes than distantly related species.

This suggests that neutral (non-adaptive) evolution may be more important in shaping inner ear morphology than previously thought. A new study of the inner ears of a diverse group of mammals sheds new light on this issue.

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