A pair of scientists have
imagined Jurassic
Park
as an unruly rave club by giving alligators
headphones and a dosage of Special K in hopes
to better understand the reptiles' ancient ancestors.
In a paper published by The
Journal of Neuroscience, biologists Lutz Kettler of
the Technische Universität München and the University of
Maryland's Catherine Carr explain how they gave alligators Ketamine
and headphones to gain insight on the auditory systems of dinosaurs.
According to the scientists, this study was designed to help navigate the
"neural maps" of alligators to learn how these animals (whose ears
are located behind
their eyes) identify different sounds.
The emphasis of
the experiment was on the interaural time difference (ITD),
which measures the time between the origin of a noise and when that sound gets
to each ear. By using Ketamine, the team led by Kettler and Carr were able
to put 40 alligators in a euphoric state long enough give each gator a pair of
earbuds that record the ITD. From this they not only learned more
about the animals' prehistoric predecessors, but they also found another
connection between reptiles and birds.
Crocodilia—which
includes alligators and crocodiles—is one of the oldest animal orders that
exist today. They have roamed the earth for roughly 250 million years and
are the closest living relatives of dinosaurs. The second oldest is birds. As a
result of their difference in appearance and habitat, scientists have been
searching for the missing link between reptiles and the avian animals. Although
the result of this experiment doesn't pinpoint an exact relative, it does
further confirm that the two species are family.
"We conclude that the available
acoustic cues and the architecture of the acoustic system in early archosaurs
led to a stable and similar organization in today's birds and crocodiles,"
the paper's abstract reads. "Although physical features, like internally
coupled ears, head size or shape, and audible frequency range, vary among the
two groups."
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