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Asked by glynny69 to Christine, Edd, Jess, Nicolas, Zara on 16 Jun 2011.
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Edward Codling answered on 16 Jun 2011:
Nice question – the answer is yes and no!
Snakes don’t have external ears like we do (and most mammals do). However they do have an inner ear and earbone that detects vibrations in the air/ground around them.
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Nicolas Biber answered on 16 Jun 2011:
No, snakes are deaf. To understand why, we have to look at evolution. Our auditory osciles, malleus, ambos and stapes (small bones in our ear, they transmit sound to our inner ear) are formed of gill arches. All vertebrates have gill arches when they are embryos. Now mealleus and ambos are formed from the first gill arch. But snakes have evolved in a different way, and the first gill arch is not incorporated in the ear but in the jaw. Snakes have an extra jaw bone and therefore a very flexible jaw, but they have no ears. However, they use this extra jaw bone to sense vibrations which is almost as good as hearing when you are on the ground and you just want to hear your prey as it approaches.
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Zara Gladman answered on 16 Jun 2011:
Great answers from Edd and Nicolas already 🙂
They have ears, but unlike us, they’re on the inside and used to pick up vibrations, not noises.
Comments
Nicolas commented on :
Phew, Edd I’m glad we are not in complete disagreement about that 😉 … with the vibration detection, please go with Edd’s statement, it’s probably more accurate than mine
Edd commented on :
I think we agree – snakes ‘hear’ – they sense vibrations – but it is not quite the same way that we hear!