Shuvuuia deserti

Dinosaur skull scans reveal clues about flight—and communication

X-ray images are revealing how these ancient animals moved through the world, what they could hear and see, and even how their young likely chirped.

A dinosaur of the genus Shuvuuia, which lived during the Cretaceous period in what is now Mongolia, had eyes and ears that suggest it hunted at night.
Illustration by Viktor Radermaker

It’s a golden age for paleontology: In recent years, scientists have gathered all kinds of clues about the way dinosaurs looked and lived, from awe-inspiring fossil reconstructions to preserved footprints and bite marks on bones. Now, paleontologists are showing that some of the most tantalizing indications of how these extinct animals behaved are enclosed inside their skulls.

A pair of studies published today in the journal Science details a technique using x-ray imaging to study the preserved inner ears and eye sockets of dinosaurs and other prehistoric reptiles. These scans are allowing paleontologists to learn about aspects of dinosaurs’ lives that might otherwise have been lost to time.

“Inner ear shape has always been linked to the lifestyle

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