Fish ear bone growth rings reveal reactions to water temperature.

Evidence

Because we can’t speak the same language, our work as scientists is to piece the story together as best we can. We can’t ask the salmon directly what they need, so we ask them with experiments and listen carefully to their answers. We stay up half the night at the microscope looking at the annual rings in fish ear bones in order to know how the fish react to water temperature. So we can fix it. We run experiments on the effects of salinity on the growth of invasive grasses. So we can fix it. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 922

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Fish ears evolved from a pressure-sensing swim bladder linked to an otolith — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute…, 341

Broader Connections

• Fish ears evolved from a pressure-sensing swim bladder linked to an otolith #expands (0.75) — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, 341