What led mammals to adapt to hearing ability? One is sure to have a reply to this without much effort – It is wither the need for wide range of hearing frequencies or to capture prey or escape, or for communicating. But, when the question of their time of evolution raises, the long-established assumption is not much longer than 200 million years ago – i.e. shortly before the dinosaurs’ origin.
But, a recent finding has proved the age-old belief wrong! It demands the first anatomically modern ear’s evolution dating back to at least 60 more million years!
This is revealed by the discovery of 260 million-year-old fossil reptiles that surprisingly possess all the anatomical features of a modern ear typical of a vertebrate. The fossilized animals were found in deposits of Permian age near the Mezen River in central Russia.
The outside of these small reptiles’ cheek were found to be covered with a large eardrum, and a bone, like our own hearing ossicles which are connected with the inner ear and the brain.
The functional performance of this unique and unexpected auditory arrangement reveals that modern hearing dates back long before the dinosaurs originated.
