Abstract
As is well known, the Mesozoic period of earth history was characterized, among other things, by an extensive adaptive radiation of the reptiles. The evolution of a variety of new structural features, such as a tough, dry skin and the amniotic egg, fitted the reptiles supremely to life on land. Within the relatively short time period of 25 million years at the beginning of the Permian period (285 million years ago), an immense diversity of reptilian forms emerged on land, in the sea and in the air. The reptiles extant today are only the modest survivors of once mighty races (Carroll, 1987).
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© 1990 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Manley, G.A. (1990). Introduction. In: Peripheral Hearing Mechanisms in Reptiles and Birds. Zoophysiology, vol 26. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-83615-2_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-83615-2_1
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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