Synthetic rainfall vibrations evoke toad emergence

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• 作者：Rafael Má ; rquez¹ ; ⁶ ; ^{rmarquez@mncn.csic.es} ; Juan F. Beltrá ; n² ; Diego Llusia¹ ; ³ ; Mario Penna⁴ ; Peter M. Narins⁵
• 刊名：Current Biology
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：19 December 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：26
• 期：24
• 页码：R1270-R1271
• 全文大小：1086 K
• 卷排序：26

文摘

Toads occupy underground refugia during periods of daily or seasonal inactivity, emerging only during rainfall [1]. We test the hypothesis that rainfall-induced vibrations in soil are the cues that trigger the emergence of toads from underground. Using playback experiments in the absence of natural rainfall in native habitats, we observed that two Iberian toad species (Pelobates cultripes and Bufo calamita) emerged significantly earlier than controls when exposed to low-frequency soil vibrations that closely mimic those of rainfall. Our results suggest that detection of abiotic seismic events are biologically relevant and widespread in arid-zone anurans. These findings provide insights into the evolutionary role played by the two low-frequency-tuned inner-ear organs in anuran amphibians — the amphibian papilla and sacculus, both detectors of weak environmental vibrational cues.