gas bladder

Streever, a biologist, includes the part wind plays in carrying life aloft and across oceans, from birds and spiders floating on wing and web, to Portuguese man-of-wars herded across water as the wind pushes against their “pneumatomophores,” a gas bladder floating above the trailing tentacles that often sting those enjoying the beach.

As mentioned in a previous post, these fish have a highly modified gas bladder with elaborate anterior projections that actually enter the skull and come in contact with the inner ear.

In some of these species this anatomy creates a direct mechanical link between the gas bladder and inner ear, analogous to the human tympanum, or eardrum.