Evolution of the sensory systems in archosaurs, Curr. Biol. , April 29, 2021 ( Vol. 31, Issue 12)

The semicircular canals serve as a kind of gyroscope helping the brain to detect where is up and where is down, and the body to stay balanced. This study investigated the structure of these canals in the earliest representatives of the reptile group called Archosauria, which include birds (and their dinosaur relatives) and crocodylians. Some of the earliest dinosaurs had canals as large as those seen in some living birds, indicating that dinosaurs evolved a birdlike sense of balance long before the origin of flight. It is also shown that there was a great variation in the size of these canals at the first stages of archosaurs evolution, indicating a burst of ecological diversity during the rise of these animals in the beginning of the age of the reptiles. Check out the paper at M. Bronzati, Benson, S. W. Evers, M. D. Ezcurra, S. F. Cabreira, J. Choiniere, K. N. Dollman, A. PaulinaCarabajal, V. J. Radermacher, L. RobertodaSilva, et al