X-rays reveal how Gardiner's frog hears with its mouth

Scientists have discovered how one of the world's smallest frogs is able to hear with its mouth.

The tiny, earless Gardiner's frog was assumed to be deaf. But this study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, external revealed that it uses its mouth cavity to convey sound signals to its brain.

This clip shows a scan through the frog's head, carried out with highly sensitive X-ray imaging techniques at the European Synchrotron Research Facility (ESRF), external in Grenoble.

These highly detailed images allowed the researchers to work out how sound was transmitted through the frog's head.

The team hopes that the discovery of this novel hearing mechanism could aid help treat some types of human deafness.