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Thursday, October 28, 2010

Photo: Ancient Reptiles Had Advanced Hearing, Fossils Suggest


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A 260 million-year-old fossil of the small reptile found in central Russia is the owner of the first known "modern" ear.

A reconstruction (above, in pink) shows the reptile's extremely large eardrum.

The find suggests land vertebrates had modern ears about 60 million years earlier than previously thought, experts say.

Images courtesy Linda Tsuji and Johannes Müller