An ancient critter may shed light on when mammals’ middle ear evolved
How early the hammer, anvil and stirrup arose has been hard to pin down
Origolestes lii, shown in the foreground in this artist’s rendition, was a shrew-sized mammal that lived about 123 million years ago in an ecosystem known as the Jehol Biota in what’s now China.
Chuang Zhao
Exceptionally preserved skulls of a mammal that lived alongside the dinosaurs may be offering scientists a glimpse into the evolution of the middle ear.