title: Seismic communication in a blind subterranean mammal: a major somatosensory mechanism in adaptive evolution underground.
abstract: Seismic communication, through low-frequency and patterned substrate-borne vibrations that are generated by head thumping, and which travel long distances underground, is important in the nonvisual communication of subterranean mole rats of the Spalax ehrenbergi superspecies (2n = 52, 54, 58, and 60) in Israel. This importance pertains both intraspecifically in adaptation and interspecifically in speciation. Neurophysiologic, behavioral, and anatomic findings in this study suggest that the mechanism of long-distance seismic communication is basically somatosensory and is independent of the auditory mechanism. Seismic communication thus appears to be a channel of communication important in the evolution of subterranean mammals that display major adaptation to life underground.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Evolution, University of Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nevo
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Heth
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pratt
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001766:Blindness; D003142:Communication; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D012377:Rodentia / Q000502:physiology*; D013003:Somatosensory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D013045:Species Specificity; D014732:Vibration