Recorded vibrations of gray whale skulls to study how vibrations in the skull are amplified in the bony hearing complex to facilitate low frequency hearing

Mysticete whales have a bony ear complex (tympanoperiotic complex, TPC) that supports highly sensitive hearing at low frequencies. Components of the mysticete TPC include the tympanic bulla, which is suspended from the skull by two thin, flexible bones (pedicles), and the periotic bone, which encases the cochlea and is embedded in the skull. Between the bulla and the periotic are the ossicular chain (middle ear bones) that excite the cochlear fluid and hence the sensory organs of hearing. We conducted experiments to measure the vibrational dynamics between the tympanic bullae and the base of the skull in both a juvenile and an adult gray whale. For the juvenile, assessments were performed on three versions of the skull: a plastic replica produced by 3D printing from CT scans of the original specimen, the original skull after much of the soft tissue had been removed by dissection, and the denuded skull after hydrogen peroxide was used to erode soft tissues within the cavities of the skul..., We conducted experiments to measure the vibrational dynamics between the tympanic bullae and the base of the skull in both a juvenile (specimen: LACM 97758) and an adult (specimen: LACM 84202) gray whale. Measurements were made by accelerometers glued with specified locations and orientations on the skull while the skull was being driven at a specific frequency, either in air or underwater. The dataset includes amplitudes of acceleration measured by 7 accelerometers positioned on the gray whale skull. Accelerometer positions are described below (begins with 'Sensor labels') and are shown in the file 'sensor_positions.jpg' (a: annotated positions on plastic skull, b: sensors on natural skull, c: sensors on denuded skull, d: sensors on adult skull. 'Plastic skull' refers to a 3D-printed replica of the juvenile skull, 'natural skull' refers to the juvenile head after most of the soft tissue was removed, 'denuded skull' refers to the skull after the rest of the soft tissue was removed by ba..., , # Recorded vibrations of gray whale skulls to study how vibrations in the skull are amplified in the bony hearing complex to facilitate low frequency hearing

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.dbrv15f90](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.dbrv15f90)

## Description of the data and file structure

`run_descriptions_TRANSDEC.csv` lists the run names for each in-water frequency sweep as well as descriptive data for each run including:

* local time (approx): Pacific Time at which the data was acquired
* drive table name: drive tables list the drive voltage and current for each frequency in a given sweep and are located in the folders named 'drive_tables_TRANSDEC_<date>'
* sweep start [Hz], sweep stop [Hz], sweep step [Hz]: describes frequencies included in frequency sweep
* pulse length [ms]: duration of transmitted pulse
* pulse rate [ms]: time from the start of one pulse to the start of the next pulse
* recording length [ms]: duration of recording (recording starts on pulse-start trigger)
* skul...,