Artist’s concept of
Shuvuuia deserti, a dinosaur that, while small, had very efficient night vision and hearing. Image via Viktor Radermaker/ SciTechDaily.
There are many modern-day nocturnal predators, animals that hunt at night under cover of darkness, including barn owls, bats, leopards and hyenas. But what about 100 million years ago, during the time of the dinosaurs? Were there any nocturnal beasts roaming around in the dark way back then? New research suggests there were.
Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed senses of hearing, smell, and specially adapted eyesight. Scientists at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg have announced a new fossil analysis with evidence that two different species of theropods – three-toed, bidepal carnivorous dinosaurs – displayed these kinds of advanced nocturnal abilities.
New research shows that a small dinosaur called Shuvuuia deserti, that lived in the deserts of what's now Mongolia, had exceptional night vision and hearing, similar to modern day owls and other night predators.
A Nocturnal Dinosaur With Eyes and Ears Like an Owl 08/05/2021
Fossils of Shuvuuia deserti depict a small predatory creature with exceptional night vision and hearing. Image: Mick Ellison/American Natural History Museum, CC BY-ND
Today, barn owls, bats, leopards and many other animals rely on their keen senses to live and hunt under the dim light of stars. These nighttime specialists avoid the competition of daylight hours, hunting their prey under the cloak of darkness, often using a combination of night vision and acute hearing.
But was there nightlife 100 million years ago? In a world without owls or leopards, were dinosaurs working the night shift? If so, what senses did they use to find food and avoid predators in the darkness? To better understand the senses of the dinosaur ancestors of birds, our team of paleontologists and palaeobiologists scoured research papers and museum collections looking for fossils that preserved delicate eye and ear structures. And we
Shuvuuia s hearing ability was as good as an owl’s
It roamed in the present-day Gobi Desert region in Mongolia
A new study has revealed that a tiny, carnivorous dinosaur, which had an exceptional low-light vision and whose hearing ability was as good as an owl s, hunted its prey at night. Measuring only 2 feet, the three-toed dinosaur species named Shuvuuia had large eyes and longer cochlea the part of the inner ear canal that holds sensory receptors. The creature used these abilities to see in the dark and hear even better than the barn owl. This particular species roamed the Earth about 75 million to 81 million years ago (late Cretaceous period) in the present-day Gobi Desert region in Mongolia.