Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

Mini Mammal Had Big Implications For Hearing

  • 13-10-2009 10:38pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 30,746 ✭✭✭✭


    A species of chipmunk sized mammal named Maotherium asiaticus which lived in the Liaoning province in China during the Cretaceous period (this time and place is more well known for it's spectacular dino-bird transitional fossils) has revealed much about the evolution of mammalian hearing.
    To evolutionary biologists, an understanding of how the sophisticated and highly sensitive mammalian ear evolved may illuminate how a new and complex structure transforms through evolution. According to the Chinese and American scientists who studied this new mammal, the middle ear bones of Maotherium are partly similar to those of modern mammals; but Maotherium's middle ear has an unusual connection to the lower jaw that is unlike that of adult modern mammals. This middle ear connection, also known as the ossified Meckel's cartilage, resembles the embryonic condition of living mammals and the primitive middle ear of pre-mammalian ancestors.

    Full article here.

    sciencecodex-wkaOW7686qj73zok.jpg


Advertisement