The functional anatomy of elephant trunk whiskers

Autor: Nora Deiringer, Undine Schneeweiß, Lena V. Kaufmann, Lennart Eigen, Celina Speissegger, Ben Gerhardt, Susanne Holtze, Guido Fritsch, Frank Göritz, Rolf Becker, Andreas Ochs, Thomas Hildebrandt, Michael Brecht
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Communications Biology, Vol 6, Iss 1, Pp 1-12 (2023)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2399-3642
DOI: 10.1038/s42003-023-04945-5
Popis: Abstract Behavior and innervation suggest a high tactile sensitivity of elephant trunks. To clarify the tactile trunk periphery we studied whiskers with the following findings. Whisker density is high at the trunk tip and African savanna elephants have more trunk tip whiskers than Asian elephants. Adult elephants show striking lateralized whisker abrasion caused by lateralized trunk behavior. Elephant whiskers are thick and show little tapering. Whisker follicles are large, lack a ring sinus and their organization varies across the trunk. Follicles are innervated by ~90 axons from multiple nerves. Because elephants don’t whisk, trunk movements determine whisker contacts. Whisker-arrays on the ventral trunk-ridge contact objects balanced on the ventral trunk. Trunk whiskers differ from the mobile, thin and tapered facial whiskers that sample peri-rostrum space symmetrically in many mammals. We suggest their distinctive features—being thick, non-tapered, lateralized and arranged in specific high-density arrays—evolved along with the manipulative capacities of the trunk.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals
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