Between 16 million and 7 million years ago , the prehistoricEpicyon haydeni – the heavy dog mintage ever to last – once grew to the size of grizzly bears and pounced on their equally monolithic quarry like foxes and Canis latrans of today .
And you mean 2019 was a scary time to be alive .
Those are just part of the finding from inquiry write inScientific Reportsstudying how ancient predators hunted . To do so , researcher analyzed the skull of lions , wolves , and hyenas – a group of mammalian top predators collectively have it off as carnivorans – to understand how prehistorical frump run some 40 million years ago . After comparing computerized CAT scan of fossil against modern animals , researchers make digital models of inner ears of 36 carnivorans , admit six out mintage , for show how prehistorical predators hunted .
While previous study used dental and branch morphology to better understand the evolutionary lineage of prehistoric hunting methods , researchers say the privileged ear , the mechanosensory organ responsible for balance and hearing , severalise us more about how these animals moved and oriented themselves in the human beings . The peak , width , and duration of three semicircular canals in the ear show the animal ’s function while the diameter of canals and altitude of cochlea suggest phylogenetic sign .
" For me , the inner pinna is the most interesting organ in the body , as it offers awing insights into ancient brute and how they lived , ” said pencil lead research worker Julia Schwab in astatement . “ The first dog and the largest - ever dog are such entrancing specimens to analyze , as nothing like them live in the world today . "
Three of the bony canal in the inner auricle modify over millions of age as animals adopted different hunting strategies . The world ’s truehearted predators , such as chetah , lions , and wolves , developed large spike canals in decree to keep their head and visual modality stable while chasing or waylay target at high speed . Morphological differences in the ear channel also tell investigator how an animal killed its quarry and whether they pursue , pounce , ambushed , or just periodically run , as well as provide perceptivity into their phylogenetic relationships and whether they were link to today ’s dog ( Canoidea ) or cats ( Feloidea ) .
“ The results demonstrate that the bony labyrinth offer a powerful ecological proxy reflecting both predatory habits as well as phylogenetic family relationship in extinct and extant carnivorans , ” wrote the generator .
