The Animal Vibration Lab's Seismic Senses exhibit was created for the 2025 Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition, which welcomed over 11,000 visitors.
Scroll to enjoy highlights from the exhibit and find out more about our research.
WHAT IS A SEISMIC SENSE?
Across the animal kingdom, evolution has given rise to an extraordinary range of senses — far more than just the familiar five. At the Animal Vibration Lab, we study animals with a sense that few of us have heard of but which many animals share. In fact, it’s found in some of the smallest invertebrates and some of the largest land mammals. It’s the ability to sense vibrations in solid surfaces, otherwise known as a seismic sense.
Animals use their seismic senses to detect movement on plants, webs, or along the ground. Whether it’s vibrations from prey crawling over a leaf or from a lorry rolling down a road, animals may use their seismic senses for detecting prey or avoiding danger.
And some species not only sense seismic vibrations, they communicate with them too. From spiders that send love songs through leaves to elephants that rumble the ground when there’s danger, a surprising number of animals produce vibrations to communicate.
Find out more from the video below:
HOW DO SEISMIC SENSES WORK?
Humans have some ability to detect seismic vibrations, but elephants and spiders seem to be much more sensitive than we are. These two types of animal, separated by hundreds of millions of years of evolution, use different biological tools for sensing vibrations.
We’re not yet certain how elephants sense vibrations, but there are two likely mechanisms.
Vibrations from the ground may be sensed directly by specialised nerve endings in the skin of an elephant's feet.
Additionally, fatty pads found in the base of elephants' feet may help conduct vibrations up through their skeletons...
... and towards the bones of their middle ears.
When an elephant's ear bones vibrate, sensory nerves in their inner ears are activated, transforming vibrations into nerve signals.
Illustrations by Dr Thomas Miller
Spiders, on the other hand, have special sensory organs for detecting seismic vibrations. These organs are known as slit sensilla.
When the ground beneath a spider vibrates, the spider's legs and body vibrate too...
This creates movement in the spider's exoskeleton, which is detected by the slit sensilla.
A spider's exoskeleton may be covered in thousands of slit sensilla, which transfer information about vibrations onto the spider's nervous system.
Illustrations by Dr Thomas Miller
WHY DO WE STUDY SEISMIC SENSES?
How eavesdropping on seismic conversations could help conserve endangered elephants
How studying spiders' seismic senses could inspire the next generation of robots
EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS
Challenge yourself to complete our Seismic Scientist Training Academy - an online game tailored to the KS2 curriculum (but fun for all ages!)
With thanks to our exhibition sponsors:
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