HEAS members publish new study on how mammals with distant evolutionary ties but similar ecological roles evolved comparable inner ear shapes.

A new study by HEAS members Nicole Grunstra, Philipp Mitteroecker and Anne Le Maître, published in Nature Communications, showed clear evidence of convergent evolution over phylogenetic signal in the inner ear of mammals. The shape of the bony labyrinth – the osseous moulding of the inner ear – remains intensively studied in humans and extinct hominins in order to study adaptation and phylogenetic relationships. This macroevolutionary study of different evolutionary signals in the mammalian inner ear provides a relevant evolutionary context for human inner ear variation.

Convergent evolution in Afrotheria and non-afrotherians demonstrates high evolvability of the mammalian inner ear.