vertebrate

In most vertebrates, this crossing transfers information from the right eye to the left side of the brain and vice versa.

Until now, only humans and a few other vertebrates, including pigeons and macaques, were known to distinguish between these two durations.

Researchers found that this ancient system, shared across all vertebrates, can independently produce center-surround interactions -- a core visual process that helps detect edges, contrast, and attention-grabbing details in the environment.

"The marine environment is the cradle of a lot of vertebrates," said Liu, an assistant adjunct professor of integrative biology and an assistant curator in the UC Museum of Paleontology.

"For Nanotyrannus to be a juvenile T. rex, it would need to defy everything we know about vertebrate growth," explains James Napoli, an anatomist at Stony Brook University and co-author of the research.