Although amphibians are highly vocal, they generally emit only a limited number of acoustic communication signals. We report here the extraordinarily rich vocal repertoire of Amolops tormotus, a ranid species in China. These frogs produce countless vocalizations, some of which share features of birdsong or primate calls, e.g., ultrasonic frequency components, multiple upward and downward FM sweeps, and sudden onset and offset of selective harmonic components within a call note. Frame-by-frame video analysis of the frog's calling behavior suggests the presence of two pairs of vocal sacs that may contribute to the remarkable call-note complexity in this species. Electronic supplementary material to this paper can be obtained by using the Springer LINK server located at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-002-0335-x.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-002-0335-x | DOI Listing |
Dongwuxue Yanjiu
June 2013
College of Life Science, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000, China.
In order to understand the acoustic characteristics and adaptive strategies of sympatric male Amolops wuyiensis and male Odorrana tormotus in environments controlled for high noise levels, we recorded and analyzed the advertisement calls produced by individual males during breeding season. The results show that A. wuyiensis produced a single type of call composed of variable syllables (from 3 to 6 syllables) with 2~10 pulses over different time periods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol
February 2008
Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, and Beckman Institute, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
The concave-eared torrent frogs (Amolops tormotus) have highly unusual ear morphology--in males the eardrums are embedded deep inside ear cavities. In collaboration with our colleagues we investigated the functional significance of this morphological feature in hearing. Sound recordings in the field showed that males of A.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGene
June 2007
College of Life Science, Anhui Province key Laboratory for Conservation and Exploitation of Biological Resource, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241000, P.R. China.
In this study, the complete nucleotide sequence (17,962 bp) of the mitochondrial DNA of Amolops tormotus was determined using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The gene content, base composition and codon usage of A. tormotus conformed to those of typical vertebrate patterns.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Exp Biol
December 2006
School of Medicine, Department of Biology, and Program for Neuroscience, Jordan Hall, 1001 E. Third Street, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA.
Most anurans are highly vocal but their vocalizations are stereotyped and simple with limited repertoire sizes compared with other vocal vertebrates, presumably because of the limited mechanisms for fine vocal motor control. We recently reported that the call of the concaveeared torrent frog (Amolops tormotus Fei) is an exception in its seemingly endless variety, musical warbling quality, extension of call frequency into the ultrasonic range and the prominence of subharmonics, chaos and other nonlinear features. We now show that the major spectral features of its calls, responsible for this frog's vocal diversity, can be generated by forcing pressurized air through the larynx of euthanized males.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol
August 2006
State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China.
The piebald odorous frog (Odorrana schmackeri), the large odorous frog (Odorrana livida) and the concave-eared torrent frog (Amolops tormotus) are sympatric species living near the same torrent streams in the vicinity of Mt. Huangshan, China. A recent study demonstrated that A.
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