Dino-bird Archaeopteryx 'was fond of nightlife'

London, April 6 (ANI): Dino-bird Archaeopteryx may have been fond of nightlife, a new American study suggests.

Lars Schmitz at the University of California, Davis, studied 77 bird species to find that it was possible to predict the foraging lifestyle of any species by measuring the bones that their eyes are set in.

Each bird pupil is surrounded by a ring of bony segments called the scleral ring. Schmitz discovered that the outer and inner diameter of this ring, combined with the depth of eye sockets, could closely predict when a bird forages.

Schmitz is now making detailed measurements, but even a quick look at Archaeopteryx fossils demonstrates that it had wide scleral rings and deep eye sockets, points out Derek Yalden at the University of Manchester.

According to Schmitz's findings, this means Archaeopteryx would have been nocturnal much like the modern day owl.

"I don't think it had occurred to anyone to suggest this," New Scientist quoted Yalden, as saying.(ANI)