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Published online 10 February 2005 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news050207-16
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Ear-splitting discovery rocks mammal identity
Triple bone structure arose independently in platypus and humans.
Listen up: mammals seem to have evolved the delicate bone structure of the middle ear at least twice. The surprising discovery comes from a fossil, found off the southern coast of Australia, that belongs to an ancestor of the platypus.
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