High-tech Imaging Of Inner Ear Sheds Light On Hearing, Behavior Of Oldest Fossil Bird

[Guest Nicholas]

LONDON (Jan. 13, 2009) — The earliest known bird, the magpie-sized Archaeopteryx, had a similar hearing range to the modern emu, which suggests that the 145 million-year-old creature — despite its reptilian teeth and long tail — was more birdlike than reptilian, according to new research published today.

Auspex gets all the good articles...

Find the article HERE!

[Auspex]

Very cool!

Drawing behavioral conclusions is a real Rubic's Cube puzzle, though.

Birds have three uses for hearing acuity: predator avoidance, prey location, and communication. Related to the auditory canal is another critical avian feature: balance. It will be a very delicate endeavor to conclude for which application(s) a species "equipment" is optimized.

[Guest bmorefossil]

awsome article

[JimInAugusta]

I am going to forward this to my wife at work. She will enjoy it too.

[Guest Nicholas]

Story was made aware to me by Soluis, so this news credit goes to him.

Earliest bird 'heard like an emu'

Archaeopteryx fossils have been known since the 1800s

The earliest known bird, the magpie-sized Archaeopteryx lithographica, was able to hear like a modern emu.

Find the article HERE!

[Guest solius symbiosus]

I found the paper, and it is open access. It can be read HERE.