Why do whales or dolphin have ears if they cannot hear properly?

Question

Whales and dolphin uses ultrasound to sense their prey or to move around. So if they use ultrasound then why do they still need ears?

Answer 1

to hear the ultrasound . .

Answer 2

This is interesting. Whales and dolphins actually have very acute hearing.

We humans have an ear made up of three main sections - the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear.

The outer ear is the part that you can see, your ear that holds your glasses up. The job of that part of your ear is to gather sound waves and direct them into the ear canal. To test this, cup your hand around your ear and you should hear better.

Whales and dolphins live in water and sound waves are transmitted differently through water than through air, so that part of the outer ear is not necessary, however they still need the part of the ear that does the hearing - the inner ear. Not having an outer ear also makes them more streamlined, which is important when you are a whale.

Additionally, the inner ear has been modified to allow for the perception of high-frequency sounds, reaching some ten times or more above the upper limit of adult human hearing. The ability to sense these high-frequency sounds is vital for the dolphin’s echolocation sense

So. . . . . . . . to answer your question, they can hear properly, but differently and their ears are perfect for whales and dolphins in the same way that our ears are perfect for us. Ain't Mother Nature wonderful!

Answer 3

The short non-copy/paste version is that they can hear well and they have ears because they evolved from land animals. That's right, some animal went out into the world and then back into it. Trippy huh?

Answer 4

well animals have evolved over time so if ears aren't that useful to them, then they will eventually evolve without them (lose the ears)

Answer 5

They hear the way their "ears" are designed to hear.