Scientists used to believe that sound waves travel through a whale's lower jaw to its ear. In 2008, computer modeling showed that sound actually enters the whale's throat, then passes into a fatty channel that transfers the vibrations to the whale's ear.
I learned this from How is that whale listening? via Whale. The computer model was based on Cuvier's beaked whale, which holds the record for the deepest dive (6230 feet) by an air-breathing animal.
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