Speculations about noise and the evolution of vertebrate hearing.
Two of the most conspicuous and celebrated properties of human hearing--the abilities to discriminate pitch and to localize sound sources, may have been secondary derivations to which the ear was preadapted by having evolved in the inevitable presence of noise.
D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000663:Amphibians; D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D006198:Hair Cells, Auditory / Q000502:physiology; D006309:Hearing; D009622:Noise; D010898:Pitch Perception / Q000502:physiology; D012444:Saccule and Utricle / Q000502:physiology; D013017:Sound Localization / Q000502:physiology; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology; D014714:Vertebrates / Q000502:physiology*