New theropod dinosaurs are found hunted in the dark

The modern birds live in almost every habitat on the planet, with only a few who have adaptations that allow them to hunt active prey at night. Birds come from a group of dinosaurs known as Theropoda. Scientists have long wondered if there are ancient dinosaurs who have sensory adaptations that allow them to hunt at night. A new study led by Professor Jonah Choiniere from the University of the Witwatersrand has answered the question.

ChoiniIere and his team investigated how the vision and the ability to hear dinosaurs and birds was compared. The researchers use CT scanning and detailed measurements to gather information about the relative size of the eyes and ears in almost 100 living birds and extinct dinosaur species. To measure hearing, the team measures the length of Lagena, which is an organ that processes the entry of sound information similar to cochlea in mammals.

One modern bird that is able to hunt in the total darkness is a ghost warehouse. Owls can hunt using hearing and have the largest Lagena proportionally from every bird. The researchers saw a scleral ring to assess the vision, which was a series of bones surrounding the students of each species. The greater the pupil can be opened, the more light can enter and a better vision of the bird has at night. Measuring the ring diameter allows scientists to determine how much light can gather in the eye.

During the study, the team found that many carnivorous theropodas such as Tyrannosaurus had vision that was optimized for daytime hearing and better than the average. The team also found that a small theropod named Shuvuui had an amazing auditory and night connection. This species has a very large Lagena, almost identical to the relative size to modern owls.

These findings suggest that, like The Barn Owl, Shuvuui can hunt in total darkness. The creature also has important eyes that some of the biggest students are proportionally measured in birds or dinosaurs, shows they can see very well at night. Shuvuui is the size of a chicken and live in the desert of what Mongolia is now.