期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：1991
卷号：88
期号：4
页码：1256-1260
DOI：10.1073/pnas.88.4.1256
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：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.
