Recorded taps on fin whale tympanoperiotic complex to study resonance related to low-frequency hearing

We studied vibrations of the tympanoperiotic complex (TPC) bones of a fin whale skull. Vibrations were excited by tapping the bones at designated locations and measuring the sounds emitted by the left and right TPC bones using eight microphones arranged around the tympanic bulla. This dataset includes the wav files recorded from all 8 microphones as well as some descriptive photos and data. Power spectra from the microphone recordings revealed that the first twelve modes of vibration had resonance frequencies between 100Hz and 6kHz. Many vibrational modes focused energy at the sigmoidal process, and therefore the ossicular chain. The resonance frequencies of the left and right TPC were offset, suggesting a mechanism for the animals to have improved hearing at a range of frequencies as well as a mechanism for directionality in their perception of sounds.