Recent work has shown that the hairs on spiders' and insects' legs act in the same way as the cilia in the cochlea of the mammalian inner ear - they pick up vibrations in the air, allowing the animals to hear each other. Wired has a great post on the story, including video of the laser and camera setup the researchers used to capture ultrafast images of the hairs doing their vibrational work.
Spiders’ Hundreds of Fine Hairs Are Hundreds of Ears
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