Nonlinear physics plays an essential role in hearing. We demonstrate on a mesoscopic description level that during the evolutionary perfection of the hearing sensor, nonlinear physics led to the unique design of the cochlea observed in mammals, and that this design requests as a consequence the perception of pitch. Our insight challenges the view that mostly genetics is responsible for the uniformity of the construction of the mammalian hearing sensor. Our analysis also suggests that scaleable and non-scaleable arrangements of nonlinear sound detectors may be at the origin of the differences between hearing sensors in amniotic lineages.