Thursday 14 December 2017

It's all in the ears: Inner ears of extinct sea monsters mirror those of today's animals


Inner ears of fossil marine reptiles called sauropterygians are revealed for the first time

Date:  December 7, 2017
Source:  University of Oxford

Summary:
A new study led by Oxford University Museum of Natural History has revealed that an extinct group of marine reptiles called sauropterygians evolved similar inner ear proportions to those of some modern day aquatic reptiles and mammals. The research is published in Current Biology today.

Sauropterygians were swimming reptiles from the 'Age of Dinosaurs' that included some semi-aquatic forms, nearshore swimmers and fully-aquatic 'underwater-flyers'. Their most well-known members are the plesiosaurs, ferocious sea monsters with four flippers, which hunted anything from small fish and squid to large marine reptiles.


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