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New study shows effects of prehistoric nocturnal life on mammalian vision
Date:10/31/2012

AUSTIN, Texas Since the age of dinosaurs, most species of day-active mammals have retained the imprint of nocturnal life in their eye structures. Humans and other anthropoid primates, such as monkeys and apes, are the only groups that deviate from this pattern, according to a new study from The University of Texas at Austin and Midwestern University.

The findings, published in a forthcoming issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society B, are the first to provide a large-scale body of evidence for the "nocturnal bottleneck theory," which suggests that mammalian sensory traits have been profoundly influenced by an extended period of adaptation to nocturnality during the Mesozoic Era. This period lasted from 250 million years ago to 65 million years ago.

To survive in the night, mammals had a host of visual capabilities, such as good color vision and high acuity, which were lost as they passed through the nocturnal "bottleneck."

"The fact that nearly all living mammals have eye shapes that appear 'nocturnal' by comparison with other amniotes [mammals, reptiles and birds] is a testament to the strong influence that evolutionary history can have on modern anatomy," says Chris Kirk, associate professor of anthropology at The University of Texas at Austin.

According to Kirk, early mammals were predominantly nocturnal during the Mesozoic partly as a strategy for avoiding predation by day-active dinosaurs.

"It's a bit surprising to still see the effects of this long period of nocturnality on living mammals more than 65 million years after non-avian dinosaurs went extinct, but that's exactly what we found," Kirk says.

The research team, led by Margaret Hall, an evolutionary biologist at Midwestern University's Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine, analyzed one of the largest datasets on eye morphology ever assembled. Using a sample of eyeballs from 266 mammal species, the researchers used a multivariate statis
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Contact: Chris Kirk
eckirk@austin.utexas.edu
512-471-0056
University of Texas at Austin
Source:Eurekalert

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