Can You Hear Me Now?

A micro-computed tomography (CT) scan of a whale ear bone. Micro-CT scanning uses 3D x-rays to image various specimens in high resolution. This technique is non-destructive and useful when examining rare or precious samples. This video depicts a 3D rendering of a dwarf sperm whale ear bone. As the video digitally dissects into the ear, you can see the porous structure above and the canals that feed into the lower, dense bone which then will transmit sound to the brain. The gray value contrast between the upper and lower portions relates to its density. The shape of these ear bones varies across whale and dolphin species, so it's important to study the variation to learn more about their hearing and morphological diversity. Micro-CT scans were performed at FAU High School Owls Imaging Lab.