A tiny, meat-eating dinosaur had superb low-light vision and hearing that was likely as good as an owl's.

And like an owl, the wee dinosaur probably used those exceptional abilities to stalk and catch its desert prey under the cover of darkness.

Owl-like Shuvuuia (shu-VU-ya) was a theropod — a three-toed and bipedal carnivorous dinosaur.

By comparing dinosaurs' fossilized eye and ear structures with those in living animals that have nocturnal habits, the researchers were able to see if a dinosaur was adapted for day or night activity.

Decades of previous research had shown that the length of this canal is closely linked to how well animals can hear, and the length of Shuvuuia's ear canal suggested that its hearing would have been "off the charts," Choiniere told Live Science. .

The combination of light-sensitive eyes and superior hearing suggested that Shuvuuia would have been highly effective at detecting and ambushing prey at night, as owls do.

This is the first time that such extreme specializations for hearing and vision have been documented in an extinct dinosaur; in combining vision with hearing, the study also provides the best evidence for nocturnal behavior in dinosaurs, Schmitz told Live Science.

Some modern mammals that live in arid desert environments, as Shuvuuia did, combine lengthy hind limbs with digging forelimbs, "and they often have really good night vision and hearing," which helps them track and catch hard-to-find prey, Choiniere said.

Burrowing desert prey would also be an easy meal for Shuvuuia to dig up with its powerful forearms.

"This observation that Shuvuuia could have operated at night makes a lot of sense in light of the rest of the adaptations," he said.

Originally published on Live Science

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