Convergent Anuran Middle Ear Loss Lacks a Universal, Adaptive Explanation

Shared selection pressures often explain convergent trait loss, yet anurans (frogs and toads) have lost their middle ears at least 38 times with no obvious shared selection pressures unifying "earless" taxa. Anuran tympanic middle ear loss is especially perplexing because acoustic communication is dominant within Anura and tympanic middle ears enhance airborne hearing in most tetrapods.

Here, we use phylogenetic comparative methods to examine whether particular geographic ranges, microhabitats, activity patterns, or aspects of acoustic communication are associated with anuran tympanic middle ear loss.

Although we find some differences between the geographic ranges of eared and earless species on average, there is plenty of overlap between the geographic distributions of eared and earless species. Additionally, we find a higher prevalence of diurnality in earless species, but not all earless species are diurnal. We find no universal adaptive explanation for the many instances of anuran tympanic middle ear loss.

The puzzling lack of universally shared selection pressures among earless species motivates discussion of alternative hypotheses, including genetic or developmental constraints, and the possibility that tympanic middle ear loss is maladaptive.