Morphological Correlates of the Phonatory Organ in an Ultrasonically Phonating Frog  

作　　者：Rongchuan XIONG Bin WANG Yuhan WU Jianping JIANG 

机构地区：[1]Chengdu Institute of Biology,Chinese Academy of Sciences [2]Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences [3]College of Life Sciences,Sichuan University [4]Department of Life Science,Liupanshui Normal College

出　　处：《Asian Herpetological Research》2012年第3期240-251,共12页亚洲两栖爬行动物研究（英文版）

基　　金：funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC 30730029;31071906);the Main Direction Program of the Knowledge Innovation of Chinese Academy of Sciences(KSCX2-YW-Z-0905;KSCX2-EW-J-22)

摘　　要：The concave-eared torrent frog(Odorrana tormota) is the first species of tailless amphibian that was evidenced to phonate and detect ultrasounds. We employed anatomic and histological methods to examine the phonatory organs, including the floor of the buccal cavity, vocal cords and glottis, of O. tormota and its sympatric species including O. graminea, O. schmackeri, and Amolops wuyiensis with different fundamental frequencies, and Pelophylax nigromaculatus as a control. Our results reveal that O. tormota possesses specialized phonatory organ structures, with thinner vocal cords modulated by a moderately stronger muscular mastoideus between the medial vocal cords and the lateral cricoid cartilages, and more elastic mouth floor to likely supply faster air stream which could make the vocal cords vibrate at higher frequencies, larger relative distance between the two muscles m. intermandibulares(RDMI), and higher nucleus density of m. intermandibularis(NDMI) and m. geniohyoideus(NDMG). The results of Pearson’s correlation tests between the mean values of the above measurements and the fundamental frequencies from the five species imply that all the specialized phonatory organ structures mentioned above might be favored by higher frequency of phonation of O. tormota.The concave-eared torrent frog(Odorrana tormota) is the first species of tailless amphibian that was evidenced to phonate and detect ultrasounds. We employed anatomic and histological methods to examine the phonatory organs, including the floor of the buccal cavity, vocal cords and glottis, of O. tormota and its sympatric species including O. graminea, O. schmackeri, and Amolops wuyiensis with different fundamental frequencies, and Pelophylax nigromaculatus as a control. Our results reveal that O. tormota possesses specialized phonatory organ structures, with thinner vocal cords modulated by a moderately stronger muscular mastoideus between the medial vocal cords and the lateral cricoid cartilages, and more elastic mouth floor to likely supply faster air stream which could make the vocal cords vibrate at higher frequencies, larger relative distance between the two muscles m. intermandibulares(RDMI), and higher nucleus density of m. intermandibularis(NDMI) and m. geniohyoideus(NDMG). The results of Pearson’s correlation tests between the mean values of the above measurements and the fundamental frequencies from the five species imply that all the specialized phonatory organ structures mentioned above might be favored by higher frequency of phonation of O. tormota.

关 键 词：concave-eared torrent frog comparative anatomy ultrasonic phonation fundamental frequency 

分 类 号：Q437[生物学—生理学]