Acoustic effects accurately predict an extreme case of biological morphology.
The biosonar system of bats utilizes physical baffle shapes around the sites of ultrasound emission for diffraction-based beam forming. Among these shapes, some extreme cases have evolved that include a long noseleaf protrusion (sella) in a species of horseshoe bat. We have evaluated the acoustic cost function associated with sella length with a computational physics approach and found that the extreme length can be predicted accurately from a fiducial point on this function. This suggests that some extreme cases of biological morphology can be explained from their physical function alone.
Zhang
Zhiwei
Z
School of Physics, Shandong University, Hongjia Lou 5, 250100 Jinan, China.
Truong
Son Nguyen
SN
Müller
Rolf
R
D000818:Animals; D002685:Chiroptera / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D004455:Echolocation / Q000502:physiology*; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D008954:Models, Biological; D009666:Nose / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D013329:Structure-Activity Relationship