Re: possible role of echolocation in K-T survival

[Betty Cunningham <bettyc@flyinggoat.com>]

isn't echolocating similar in principle to sonar?  The medium is
different, and the reception of sound is through different body parts
(ears vs. melon), but isn't the principle of issuing sound to recieve
sound wave bounces the same?

Could ichthyosaurs have used sonar?

-Betty Cunningham

Pat Grant (Library: Serials Catalog wrote:
> 
> Given that only small terrestrial animals survived the K-T
> event, and given that, among terrestrial animals, SKAIK only the small
> ones echolocate, has there been any attempt to link ability to
> echolocate with survival at the K-T?  (Not that I can suggest any
> means of testing such an idea, even approximately--it just seems
> intuitively likely that something that could help an animal locate
> food and others of its own kind, even in conditions of total darkness,
> might be a significant contributor to survival in some of the proposed
> K-T scenarios.  Especially since it may be a primitive character for
> mammals--perhaps fossilized auditory bullae could give some evidence?)
> 
> Pat