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Cranial pneumatization and auditory perceptions of the oviraptorid dinosaur Conchoraptor gracilis (Theropoda, Maniraptora) from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia

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Abstract

The distribution of air-filled structures in the craniofacial and neurocranial bones of the oviraptorid ZPAL MgD-I/95, discovered at the Hermiin Tsav locality, Mongolia, is restored. Based on the complete obliteration of most of the cranial sutures, the specimen is identified as an adult individual of Conchoraptor gracilis Barsbold 1986. Except for the orbitosphenoids and epipterygoids, the preserved bones of the neurocranium are hollow. Three types of tympanic recess are present in Conchoraptor, a characteristic shared with troodontids, dromaeosaurids, and avian theropods. The contralateral middle ear cavities are interconnected by the supraencephalic pathway that passes through the dorsal tympanic recesses, the posterodorsal prootic sinuses and the parietal sinus. The spatial arrangements of the middle ear cavity and a derived neurocranial pneumatic system in Conchoraptor indicate enhancements of acoustic perception in the lower-frequency registers and of auditory directionality. We further speculate that this improvement of binaural hearing could be explained as an adaptation required for accurate detection of prey and/or predators under conditions of low illumination. The other potentially pneumatic structures of the Conchoraptor cranium include (1) recessus-like irregularities on the dorsal surface of the nasal and frontal bones (a putative oviraptorid synapomorphy; pos); (2) a subotic recess; (3) a sub-condylar recess; and (4) a posterior condylar recess (pos).

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Ole N. Larsen, Gareth Dyke, and Kevin Padian for reading and commenting on an earlier version of this manuscript, Gerald Mayr for his valuable editing and editorial comments, and Randy and Deb Lyons for their rigorous edit of the final version of the manuscript. Our special thanks to Halszka Osmólska and Teresa Maryańska for providing access to the fossil specimen and Zdeněk Seidl and Vladimír Smékal for providing access to the CT facility.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Redpath Museum-Biology Department, McGill University, 859 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2K6, Canada

    Martin Kundrát

  2. Institute of Physiology, The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Vídeňská 1083, 142-20, Prague 4, Czech Republic

    Jiří Janáček

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  1. Martin Kundrát
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Correspondence to Martin Kundrát.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the image is a link to a high resolution version

Supplementary Fig. S1

Transversal CT-scan sections through the rostral part of the skull of Conchoraptor gracilis, ZPAL MgD-I/95 (JPG 662 kb)

Supplementary Fig. S2

Transversal CT-scan sections through the anterior neurocranium of Conchoraptor gracilis, ZPAL MgD-I/95 (a)(JPG 436 kb) (b)(JPG 327 kb)

Supplementary Fig. S3

Transveral CT-scan sections through the posterior neurocranium of Conchoraptor gracilis, ZPAL MgD-I/95 (a)(JPG 578 kb) (b)(JPG 330 kb)

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Kundrát, M., Janáček, J. Cranial pneumatization and auditory perceptions of the oviraptorid dinosaur Conchoraptor gracilis (Theropoda, Maniraptora) from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Naturwissenschaften 94, 769–778 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-007-0258-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-007-0258-7

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