Dinosaur skull scans reveal clues about flight and communication
X-ray images are revealing how these ancient animals moved through the world, what they could hear and see, and even how their young likely chirped.
A dinosaur of the genus Shuvuuia, which lived during the Cretaceous period in what is now Mongolia, had eyes and ears that suggest it hunted at night.Illustration by Viktor Radermaker
ByRiley Black
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It’s a golden age for paleontology: In recent years, scientists have gathered all kinds of clues about the way dinosaurs looked and lived, from awe-inspiring fossil reconstructions to preserved footprints and bite marks on bones. Now, paleontologists are showing that some of the most tantalizing indications of how these extinct animals behaved are enclosed inside their skulls.
This tiny dinosaur hunted in the dark and heard better than an owl
With unusually large eyes and hair-trigger hearing, the tiny desert-dwelling dinosaur hunted its prey at night, offering more definitive evidence that dinosaurs weren’t only active in the daytime.
It’s one of the findings of two groundbreaking studies published Thursday that examined and reconstructed the inner ears of ancient fossilized beasts and compared them with the ear canals of living animals.
The results offer intriguing insights into how dinosaurs may have experienced their world, including whether they were nocturnal hunters, attentive parents, clumsy flyers or land lubbers.
By Jim Shelton
May 6, 2021
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Hesperornis image provided by the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. (Photo: Robert Lorenz)
If paleontologists had a wish list, it would almost certainly include insights into two particular phenomena: how dinosaurs interacted with each other and how they began to fly.
The problem is, using fossils to deduce such behavior is a tricky business. But a new, Yale-led study offers a promising entry point the inner ear of an ancient reptile.
According to the study, the shape of the inner ear offers reliable signs as to whether an animal soared gracefully through the air, flew only fitfully, walked on the ground, or sometimes went swimming. In some cases, the inner ear even indicates whether a species did its parenting by listening to the high-pitched cries of its babies.
How giant sauropods got their strange skulls futurity.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from futurity.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Jim Shelton
April 14, 2021
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Anchisaurus fossil from the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History.
It was always going to be a big lift, piecing together the story of how sauropods the long-necked, lumbering giants of the dinosaur world developed their remarkable, box-like heads.
But Yale paleontologists have done just that. They say their findings add crucial information about the origins of some of the world’s best-known dinosaurs.
Sauropods, named by pioneering Yale paleontologist O.C. Marsh in 1878, originated in the late Triassic period and roamed across the globe by the late Jurassic period, 150 million years ago. These plant-eating creatures included