Research reveals that the human ear evolved from fish gills

A study by researchers from China, Sweden and the United Kingdom and published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolutionindicates that the middle ear of humans evolved from the gills of fish.

Made up of the eardrum, an air-filled chamber that contains a series of three small bones (the hammer, anvil, and stirrup), the middle ear transmits vibrations to the inner ear through an incision called the oval window, which helps convert them into sound.

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The middle ear of humans consists of the tympanic cavity, which arises from a helical modification that originated in the gills of fish, as well as the hyoid mandible, which explains the connection between our ears and our mouths through the Eustachian tube. Photo: Ruryk – Creative Commons

According to Gai Zhikun, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and first author of the research paper “Evolution of the axial region from fish-jawed to tetrapods,” there is tremendous embryonic and fossil evidence that this structure evolved from the prodigy fish.

The fossils of fish discovered in the Chinese provinces of Zhejiang and Yunnan, which provide anatomical traces of the origin of vertebrates from the gills, were sent for analysis by Swiss light source A synchrotron located at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen, Switzerland.

Fish spiral gills develop into tetrapods. Photo: Zhikun Gai, Min Zhu, Erik Ahlberg and Philip CJ Donoghue

There, the material was subjected to a non-destructive examination. Then, a simulation was developed through 3D reconstruction, which was fundamental to completing the study.

According to the results, in tetrapods (terrestrial vertebrates with four limbs), the embryonic spiral sinus gives rise to the middle ear cavity and the auditory tube, while the dorsal part of the embryonic hyoid arch gives rise to the stirrup, which is the only middle ear bone of amphibians, reptiles and birds, or the smallest of the three ossicles in mammals.

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“This suggests that the middle ear arose as a modification of the blowhole as well as the airway cortex, but the relationship between the two is complex and there is evidence that the middle ear that has adapted to amplify airborne sound has evolved more than once,” says Dr.

According to Gai, the discovery proves that humans’ ears and mouths are connected thanks to an ancient breathing passageway that passes from the fish’s mouth through the gills.

“It is the remnants of an evolutionary fish from more than 400 million years ago, which we now call the Eustachian Channel,” the researcher explained.

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