Gigi Yazigi, age 11, of Albany, New York, for her question:

Do turtles have ears?

A turtle has no outer ears where you would expect them to be. But he does have a pair of inner ears, hidden away under the leathery skin that covers his whole head. The real hearing work, as we know, is done by the comple 2 inner ears which are protected inside the skull. The turtle's inner ears are very well developed, so we might expect him to have keen hearing.

However, for some reason, this is not so. Researchers report that a turtle has rather poor hearing. What's more, he seems able to hear only low rumbling sounds. Higher tones are too much for his ears. However, he gathers a wide range of sounds from vibrations. His skin and shell pick up trembling sound vibrations from the earth and water  ¬and this hearing data is sent to his brain to be interpreted.