What’s the purpose for all the ridges, bumps and curves?
In: Biology
They are sound funnels.
Also the bumps probably help with directional sound.
Like a reverse sydney opera house.
The funny shapes of the external ear help our brain to decode directionality of sounds. I can’t explain the exact mechanism of that; I’m not even certain that it’s well understood.
What I don’t understand is why everyone’s ears are different. You would think that evolution would have come up with an optimal shape eventually.
Another of many reasons, your brain uses the difference in timing that it takes from sound to enter one ear from the other to determine the direction or sometimes amplitude of the sound wave. Your nose does something similar withh smells to tell how old they are( humans noses try anyways) those odd shapes helps to reflect the noise off at many different unique variations which allows the neurons to need a serious coincidence to occur in order to fire and that helps our brain recognize a wider range of frequencies and reinforce memories to unique sounds probably at the cost of detecting small amplitudes (quiet noises)
Ears have a lot of bumps and curves to increase their surface area. When we’re hot, blood flows to our ears to cool down. The more bumps, the more skin is exposed to the air, cooling down the body.
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