Wissenschaftler entdecken den auditiven „Sechsten Sinn“ bei Geckos: Sie nutzen einen normalerweise mit dem Gleichgewicht verbundenen Mechanismus, um Vibrationen wahrzunehmen, was zu neuen Erkenntnissen darüber führt, wie Tiere ihre Umgebung hören und fühlen

>In a new study published in Current Biology on October 4, 2024, the researchers revealed that geckos use the saccule—a part of their inner ear traditionally associated with maintaining balance and body positioning—to detect low-frequency vibrations. According to the researchers, this special “sixth sense” also plays a complementary role to the geckos’ normal hearing and the way they sense the world around them. The team believes that this previously unrecognized hearing mechanism may be present in other reptilian species as well, challenging existing ideas about how animal sensory systems evolved and diverged over time

>The saccule can detect faint vibrations ranging from 50 and 200 Hz, a spectrum well below what geckos can usually hear through their ears. Researchers say this indicates that the saccule serves a distinct yet complementary function to the geckos’ regular auditory system

paper: “[Auditory pathway for detection of vibration in the tokay gecko,](http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.09.016)”