Anatomy and mechanisms of vocal production in harvest mice.
J Exp Biol
; 227(5)2024 03 01.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38269528
ABSTRACT
Characterizing mechanisms of vocal production provides important insight into the ecology of acoustic divergence. In this study, we characterized production mechanisms of two types of vocalizations emitted by western harvest mice (Reithrodontomys megalotis), a species uniquely positioned to inform trait evolution because it is a sister taxon to peromyscines (Peromyscus and Onychomys spp.), which use vocal fold vibrations to produce long-distance calls, but more ecologically and acoustically similar to baiomyines (Baiomys and Scotinomys spp.), which employ a whistle mechanism. We found that long-distance calls (â¼10â
kHz) were produced by airflow-induced vocal fold vibrations, whereas high-frequency quavers used in close-distance social interactions (â¼80â
kHz) were generated by a whistle mechanism. Both production mechanisms were facilitated by a characteristic laryngeal morphology. Our findings indicate that the use of vocal fold vibrations for long-distance communication is widespread in reithrodontomyines (Onychomys, Peromyscus, Reithrodontomys spp.) despite overlap in frequency content that characterizes baiomyine whistled vocalizations. The results illustrate how different production mechanisms shape acoustic variation in rodents and contribute to ecologically relevant communication distances.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Peromyscus
/
Larynx
Limits:
Animals
Language:
En
Journal:
J Exp Biol
Year:
2024
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States