Genetically modified marmosets as a model for human deafness

A new primate model provides significant opportunities for future gene therapies

Deutsches Primatenzentrum (DPZ)/German Primate Center

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Myrabello, a genetically modified marmoset. Photo: Katharina Diederich

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Credit: Katharina Diederich / German Primate Center

Why are some people unable to hear from birth, even though their inner ear appears intact? One possible cause lies in the so-called OTOF gene. It plays a central role in transmitting sound signals from the hair cells to the auditory nerve. Without this function, acoustic information does not reach the brain. Researchers from the German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, the University Medical Center Göttingen, and the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences have now, for the first time, generated marmosets in which this gene has been knocked out precisely. The animals are healthy and develop normally, but are deaf from birth. This provides the first primate model that realistically replicates key characteristics of human deafness (Nature Communications).

Hearing loss is one of the most common congenital sensory disorders in humans. A major cause is a defect in the OTOF gene. This gene ensures that the protein otoferlin is produced in the inner ear. This protein is necessary for sound signals to travel from the hair cells to the auditory nerve. Without it, the ear still functions externally, but the signals do not reach the brain.

Genetically modified marmosets

The Göttingen research team used the CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing tool to modify precisely the OTOF gene in fertilized marmoset eggs, rendering it non-functional in the resulting offspring. The genetically modified embryos were then implanted into a surrogate mother. The animals that were born developed normally, but they were deaf from birth. Hearing tests using electrophysiological methods, similar to an EEG, confirmed deafness, as is also observed in patients with an OTOF gene defect. The absence of otoferlin protein in the inner hair cells further confirmed the genetic knockout.

A crucial step toward new therapies

“With the OTOF-knockout marmosets, we now have, for the first time, a primate model that realistically replicates human OTOF-related hearing loss,” says Tobias Moser, Director of the Institute of Auditory Neuroscience at the University Medical Center Göttingen. “This gives us a crucial tool for developing new therapies in a more targeted and safer manner, while also considering their long-term effects.”

The new model bridges an important gap between mouse models, cell culture systems, and clinical application. It enables studies under conditions that more closely resemble human hearing development and physiology than previous models. This is particularly significant for the further development of novel inner ear therapies.

Complex research in interdisciplinary collaboration

“Creating genetically precisely modified primates is extraordinarily challenging from a reproductive and molecular biology perspectives. The fact that we succeeded in doing this for OTOF in marmosets demonstrates what is possible when reproductive biology, genome editing, and biomedical and veterinary research collaborate closely,” says Rüdiger Behr, head of the Stem Cell Biology and Regeneration Platform at the German Primate Center.

This project was made possible through close interdisciplinary collaboration between scientists at the German Primate Center, the University Medical Center Göttingen, and the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences.

Prospects for the medicine of the future

The new model provides an important foundation for further developing gene therapies and other innovative approaches to treating hearing disorders. The goal is to better understand their safety, efficacy, and long-term stability. Furthermore, the precise genetic modification of marmosets opens up new possibilities for developing additional disease models and advancing therapies for previously incurable diseases.

“This model represents a major step forward for translational research,” says Marcus Jeschke, professor at the German Primate Center and at the University Medical Center Göttingen. “It offers the opportunity to test and optimize OTOF gene therapies and optogenetic cochlear implants under conditions that are significantly closer to human hearing than previous models.”

The work was funded by the Leibniz Cooperative Excellence Program, the DFG Cluster of Excellence MBExC, the DFG Collaborative Research Center 1690, and the Else Kröner Fresenius Center for Optogenetic Therapies.

 

The German Primate Center (DPZ) - Leibniz Institute for Primate Research conducts biological and biomedical research on and with primates in the fields of infection research, neuroscience and primate biology. The DPZ also maintains five field stations in the tropics and is a reference and service center for all aspects of primate research. The DPZ is one of the 96 research and infrastructure facilities of the Leibniz Association

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Journal

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-026-71047-1 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Generation of marmoset monkeys with a non-mosaic disruption of the OTOF gene as a model of human deafness

Article Publication Date

28-Mar-2026

 

New vaccine strategy could help extend immunity against evolving viruses

UW–Madison research identifies a way to program longer-lasting T cells, a potential step toward broader, more durable protection against infections like the flu and COVID-19.

University of Wisconsin-Madison

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Researchers at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine have identified a possible way to make longer lasting vaccines for respiratory viruses like influenza and the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

The work, published March 25 in in the journal Cell Reports, focuses on T cells, a type of immune cell that helps control infections by killing virus-infected cells. Unlike antibodies — the basis of most current vaccines, which can lose effectiveness as viruses mutate — T cells recognize more stable parts of viruses, offering a path to broader protection.

A problem with designing vaccines around T cells, though, is their relatively short lifespan. The new research sheds light on a surprising potential workaround.

“We have discovered essentially a mechanism which we can target — a new clue to generating long-lived T cells,” says M. Suresh, a professor in the Department of Pathobiological Sciences who led the study. 

Rethinking how vaccines trigger immunity

Most vaccines are designed to stimulate antibodies that block infection. That approach works well for many infectious diseases, but it can fall short against viruses that evolve quickly.

“So, what do we do? We need a plan B,” says Suresh. 

For viruses like SARS-CoV-2 and seasonal influenza, that plan B has meant regularly updating vaccines to target newer virus variants and encouraging the public to get the latest flu and COVID shots each year. But that strategy has its pitfalls. 

“With the pandemic we went through, people are just tired of getting vaccinated,” Suresh says. Indeed, vaccination rates have been declining in the United States for years. 

The ability to harness T cells could offer a potentially more effective plan B. Rather than preventing infection outright, T cells help limit disease severity and promote early recovery by identifying and destroying infected cells.

“They go and hunt one infected cell at a time and eliminate them,” Suresh says.

Because T cells recognize internal viral proteins that don’t change much over time, they can remain effective even as viruses mutate. 

A key challenge, however, is the durability of protection offered by T cells, especially in the lungs, where respiratory infections take hold.

Suresh’s lab studies a specialized group of immune cells known as tissue-resident memory T cells, which remain in the lungs and airways as a first line of defense. These cells can respond quickly to infection.

“But the problem is they don’t stay very long,” Suresh says. “They die off, and we still don’t know why.”

A different early signal, a different immune outcome

In the new study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health, Suresh and his colleagues looked at what happens in the first hours after vaccination, when the body’s innate immune system is activated.

Different types of pathogens trigger different early inflammatory signals that “program” memory T cells to recognize and go after infected cells. Suresh’s team asked whether changing those signals could reshape how T cells develop.

Using an experimental vaccine approach in mice, the researchers compared two types of early immune signals: one that mimics a viral infection and another that resembles a bacterial response. The difference was striking.

“When we had a virus-like inflammation, the memory T cells dropped off and we quickly lost protection,” Suresh says. “But when we created a bacterial-like inflammation, the mice developed a different kind of memory T cell which actually persisted longer and protected longer.”

Stem-like cells that adapt when needed

The longer-lasting cells had characteristics similar to stem cells, Suresh says, including the ability to persist and regenerate. 

Even more surprising, those cells were able to adapt when confronted with a virus. When the researchers exposed vaccinated mice to infection, the T cells shifted into a more typical virus-fighting mode.

“They just flipped,” Suresh says. 

That flexibility suggests the T cells could combine durability with the ability to effectively combat a viral infection.

Toward longer-lasting, broader vaccines

The findings offer a potential path toward vaccines that require fewer boosters and provide broader protection across variants.

“The duration of immunity is really, really important,” Suresh says. “Can we vaccinate fewer times, and can shots protect against new strains?”

The research also highlights the importance of delivering immunity where infections occur. For respiratory diseases, that may mean developing vaccines that work in the nose and lungs rather than through injection.

“The best way to immunize against all our respiratory infections is to give through the normal route of infection,” Suresh says.

What comes next

The current study was conducted in mice. The team plans to test the approach in nonhuman primates and in models that better reflect the diversity of human immune systems.

Future work will also explore ways to guide immune cells to the lungs after traditional vaccination — a strategy that could improve protection without requiring new delivery methods.

This research received funding from the National Institutes of Health (U01 AI124299 and R21 AI149793). 

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Journal

Cell Reports

DOI

10.1016/j.celrep.2026.117197 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Cells

Article Title

Innate imprinting of transcriptional trajectories governs respiratory TRM fate and persistence

 

Birds do it, bees do it … sip alcohol, that is

Biologists found low levels of ethanol in the nectar of most flowers tested. All are visited by nectarivores.

University of California - Berkeley

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An Anna’s hummingbird (Calypte anna) feeding on flowers of an Island Mallow (Malva assurgentiflora), which was one of the plant species included in the study.

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Credit: Ammon Corl/UC Berkeley

As bees and hummingbirds flit from flower to flower, greedily sipping nectar in exchange for pollination, the animals often get another treat: alcohol.

In the first broad analysis of the alcohol content of flower nectars, University of California, Berkeley biologists found detectable alcohol in at least one flower of 26 of the 29 species of plants tested. While most samples had very low levels, almost certainly from yeast fermenting the sugars in the nectar, one contained 0.056% ethanol by weight: about 1/10 proof.

While this concentration may seem minuscule, for some animals nectar is their main source of calories. Hummingbirds consume between 50% and 150% of their entire body weight in nectar every day. The researchers calculate that an Anna’s hummingbird (Calypte anna), common along the Pacific coast, would consume about 0.2 grams of ethanol per kilogram of body weight per day — equivalent to a human drinking about one serving of alcohol.

The birds and the bees consume the alcohol in small doses throughout the day and appear to show no obvious effects from the spiked nectar. In fact, a previous study by the same group showed that while hummingbirds tolerate sugar water that contains up to 1% alcohol, they tend to avoid higher concentrations.

Nevertheless, other chemicals found in small amounts in nectar — nicotine and caffeine, for example — have demonstrated effects on the animals that consume it. The same could be true of ethanol.

“Hummingbirds are like little furnaces. They burn through everything really quick, so you don't expect anything to accumulate in their bloodstream,” said doctoral student Aleksey Maro, who collected and analyzed the nectar with postdoctoral fellow Ammon Corl. “But we don't know what kind of signaling or appetitive properties the alcohol has. There are other things that the ethanol could be doing aside from creating a buzz, like with humans.”

“There may be other kinds of effects specific to the foraging biology of the species in question that could be beneficial,” added Robert Dudley, UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology. “They're burning it so fast, I'm guessing that they probably aren't suffering inebriating effects. But it may also have other consequences for their behavior.”

Maro, Corl and Dudley published a paper about their findings today (March 25) in the journal Royal Society Open Science, coauthored with their Berkeley colleagues, Rauri Bowie and Jimmy McGuire, both professors of integrative biology and curators in the campus’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.

Dudley noted that their first experiment involving birds and alcohol, which was conducted at a feeder outside his office window, confirmed that Anna’s hummingbirds are indifferent to alcohol in sugar water if it’s at low concentration (below 1% by volume) but visit the feeder half as often when the concentration is 2%.

“Somehow they are metering their intake, so maybe zero to 1% is a more likely concentration that they would find in the wild than anything higher,” he said.

A second experiment, led by Cynthia Wang-Claypool, a former graduate student who worked with the research group, showed that feathers, including those of the Anna’s hummingbird, contain a metabolic byproduct of ethanol, ethyl glucuronide. The implication is that they not only ingest alcohol in their diet, but they metabolize it much like mammals do. The new experiment is further evidence that birds and other animals, including our ape ancestors, evolved a tolerance for and, in some cases, a preference for alcohol.

“The laboratory experiment was showing that yes, they will drink ethanol in their nectar, though they have some aversion to it if it gets too high,” Corl said. “The feathers are saying that, yes, they will metabolize it. And then this study is saying that ethanol is actually pretty widespread in the nectar they consume.”

After collecting the nectar and measuring its ethanol content using an enzymatic assay, the researchers attempted to calculate the daily alcohol consumption, based on estimated caloric intake, of birds that live in the native habitat of some of these flowers. Since daily caloric intake of nectar is known for very few species, they were only able to estimate daily ethanol intake for two hummingbirds, including the Anna’s hummingbird, and three species of sunbirds, which in South Africa feed on several plant species in the UC Botanical Garden, including the honeybush (Melianthus major). Sunbirds are nectar feeders that occupy the same niche in Africa as hummingbirds do in the Americas.

They compared these estimates with the calculated daily alcohol consumption of two other nectarivores, the European honeybee and the pen-tailed tree shrew, as well as with fruit-eating chimpanzees and humans imbibing one standard American drink per day (0.14 grams/kg/day). They concluded that the tree shrew consumes the most alcohol in its daily diet (1.4 g/kg/day), while the honeybee consumes the least (0.05 g/kg/day). When feeding from flowers native to their home environment, the nectar-eating birds consumed about the same amount of alcohol: 0.19 to 0.27 g/kg/day.

Ironically, the hummingbird feeder study suggests that Anna’s hummingbirds likely get a higher alcohol dose from fermented sugar in feeders (0.30 g/kg/day) than through fermented flower nectar.

The research was conducted as part of a larger, five-year project funded by the National Science Foundation to collect large-scale genetic data for all hummingbird and sunbird species in order to assess their genetic adaptations to various environments and food sources, including high altitude, very sugary nectar and frequently fermented nectar.

“These studies suggest that there may be a broad range of physiological adaptations across the animal kingdom to the ubiquity of dietary ethanol, and that the responses we see in humans may not be representative of all primates or of all animals generally,” Dudley said. “Maybe there are other physiological detoxification pathways or other kinds of nutritional effects of ethanol for animals that are consuming it every day of their lives. That's the interesting thing — this is chronic through the course of the day, but that's a lifetime exposure post-weaning. It just means that the comparative biology of ethanol ingestion deserves further study.”

UC Berkeley doctoral student Aleksey Maro using a capillary tube to extract nectar from a Crinodonna lily (× Amarcrinum memoria-corsii) in the UC Botanical Garden.

Credit

Ammon Corl/UC Berkeley

Collecting nectar from Puya alpestris [VIDEO] 

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Journal

Royal Society Open Science

Article Title

Low-level ethanol is widespread within floral nectar

Article Publication Date

24-Mar-2026

From Speculation To Science: Humans Are Born Musical

March 15, 2026

By Eurasia Review


Humans are fundamentally “musical animals” – and our capacity for music is rooted in biology, not just culture. This is the conclusion of new work by University of Amsterda professor of Music Cognition Henkjan Honing. In ‘The Biology of Musicality’, published in the journal Current Biology, Honing describes how two decades of work across psychology, neuroscience, biology, genetics and animal cognition have reshaped scientists’ understanding of music’s origins. Instead of studying music as a cultural product, researchers should be focussing on “musicality” – the biological capacity that enables humans to perceive, produce, and enjoy structured sound.

‘For much of the twentieth century, people thought studying the evolution of music was pure speculation,’ says Honing. ‘Because music can’t be found in the fossil record, many assumed we could never investigate it scientifically. But that view is now outdated.’
Babies show musical ability from birth

Some of the strongest evidence comes from infancy. Studies show that newborns can detect rhythmic patterns, prefer certain melodic contours, and form expectations about timing and pitch long before they acquire language.

‘These abilities emerge spontaneously,’ says Honing. ‘Infants respond to rhythm and melody without being taught. That strongly suggests we are born with biological predispositions for musical structure.’

‘These similarities are unlikely to be accidents,’ Honing says. ‘They point to shared cognitive biases – ways our brains naturally organise sound.’

Looking beyond humans

To trace musicality’s evolutionary roots, scientists also study other species. This comparative approach helps identify which components are ancient and which may be uniquely human.

Across cultures, children show an intuitive grasp of musical organisation, even in very different musical traditions. Although music varies widely worldwide, recurring patterns – such as common pitch relationships and rhythmic structures – appear consistently.

‘If a musical trait is found in humans and other primates, it likely existed in our common ancestor,’ Honing explains. ‘If we see similar traits in distantly related animals like birds, that suggests evolution arrived at similar solutions independently.’

Research supports what Honing calls a “multicomponent hypothesis”: musicality is not a single trait but a mosaic of abilities – including beat perception, pitch processing and emotional response – each with its own evolutionary history.
Not just language in disguise

For decades, many scientists assumed music was a by-product of language. Growing evidence challenges that idea. Brain imaging studies show that music and speech rely on partly distinct neural pathways. Some patients with severe language impairments retain musical abilities, while others with normal language experience congenital amusia.

‘Music is not just language with decoration,’ Honing says. ‘The evidence increasingly suggests that musicality is an ancient biological capacity, possibly predating language itself.’

Rather than evolving from scratch, musicality likely emerged by integrating older brain systems involved in perception, movement and emotion.

‘Musicality may have arisen by bringing together perceptual, motor and emotional building blocks in new ways,’ Honing explains.

Why it matters

The implications of this extend beyond explaining why we love music. Research on musicality may inform treatments for language disorders, motor impairments and emotional dysregulation, and may guide new approaches to education and well-being.

‘The study of musicality has moved from philosophical debate to empirical science,’ Honing says. ‘We can now ask precise questions about how specific components evolved and how they function across species.’

The growing evidence suggests that music is not merely a cultural ornament – it is a fundamental part of human nature.

‘Recognising that musicality is a core biological capacity changes how we see ourselves,’ Honing concludes. ‘We are, by nature, musical beings.’

  

Miniscule fossil discovery reveals fresh clues into the evolution of the earliest-known relative of all primates

Purgatorius had previously only been found in the upper regions of North America, this discovery, 500 miles south, suggests they diversified soon after the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous

Taylor & Francis Group

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Purgatorius upper molar from Corral Bluffs Denver Basin CO 

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Credit: Dr Stephen Chester

New, miniscule fossils of the earliest-known relative of all primates, including humans, Purgatorius, have been unearthed in a more southern region of North America than ever before – and the breakthrough is providing paleontologists fresh clues about evolution.

The origin and early biogeographic history of primates is a fascinating, albeit controversial topic. The oldest archaic primate, Purgatorius, is a small, shrew-sized mammal that first appears in North America immediately after the extinction of the dinosaurs around 65.9 million years ago.

While fossil bearing rock of the right age exists throughout North America, to-date this mammal had previously only been found in present day Montana and southwestern Canada.
The next set of archaic primates include a diversity of relatives in southwestern USA, but these date to some two million years later – which has left somewhat of a puzzle… until now.

As findings, published today in the peer-reviewed Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, report the southernmost discovery of Purgatorius fossils ever unearthed – uncovered in Colorado’s Denver Basin, at the Corral Bluffs study area.

“The discovery helps fill the gap in understanding the geography and evolution of our earliest primate relatives,” explains lead author Dr. Stephen Chester, associate professor at Brooklyn College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY), who led the study alongside colleagues from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS).

“The presence of these fossils in Colorado suggests that archaic primates originated in the north and then spread southward, diversifying soon after the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period,” adds Dr. Chester.

“Ankle bones of Purgatorius exhibit features that indicate it lived in trees, so we initially thought its absence south of Montana could be related to the sweeping devastation of forests from the asteroid impact 66 million years ago.

“However, our paleobotanical colleagues suggested the recovery of plants in North America was fast leading us to believe that Purgatorius should also be in more southern regions and perhaps we simply hadn’t looked hard enough.”

To enable this deeper dive, Dr. Chester and colleagues from DMNS, deployed a careful, but extensive screen-washing technique. It was used, thanks, in part, to the support of a nearly $3 million collaborative grant from the National Science Foundation, which has funded a wider project – led by Dr Tyler Lyson at DMNS – to understand how life on Earth recovered following the mass extinction, best known for the demise of the dinosaurs.

The extensive screen-washing of sediments and picking was carried out by students and volunteers. It resulted in countless fossils of fish, crocodilians, turtles, and… eventually, a few tiny Purgatorius teeth that would fit on the tip of a baby’s finger.

What is particularly “exciting”  about these teeth, explains Dr. Jordan Crowell, a postdoctoral fellow at the DMNS who also played a key role in the study, is that they could in fact belong to an earlier species of Purgatorius.

“The specimens have a unique combination of features compared to known species of Purgatorius, but we are awaiting the recovery of additional material to assess whether these fossils represent a new species,” he adds.

These tiny teeth also demonstrate that the previously presumed absence of early primate relatives in more southern states of the Western Interior of North America was at least partly due to a sampling bias. Paleontologists have been finding fossils from this region and time interval using traditional surface collecting techniques for nearly 150 years, which mostly results in the collection of large fossils that are apparent to the naked eye.

“Thanks to our long-term partnership with the City of Colorado Springs who own the land where the fossils were collected, as well as countless hours of work by our volunteers and interns picking through the dirt for the precious vertebrate fossils, we are building some incredible datasets that provide insights on how life including our earliest primitive primate ancestors, rebounded after the single worst day for life on Earth,” adds co-author Dr Lyson.

“Our results demonstrate that small fossils can easily be missed,” concludes Dr. Chester. “With more intensive searching, especially using screen-washing techniques, we will undoubtedly discover many more important specimens.”

The paper also includes co-author Dr. David Krause, Senior Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the DMNS.

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Journal

Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology

DOI

10.1080/02724634.2026.2614024 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animal tissue samples

Article Title

Southernmost occurrence of Purgatorius sheds light on the biogeographic history and diversification of the earliest primate relatives

Article Publication Date

3-Mar-2026

Purgatorius original by Andrey Atuchin

Brooklyn College Undergraduate Research Assistants

Credit

Stephen Cheste

 

DMNS interns and volunteers

Credit

Dr Tyler Lyson

“Peculiar” ancient ancestor of the crocodile started life on four legs in adolescence before it began walking on two

Newly discovered Late Triassic reptile was among creatures that had physical features mimicking the late-evolving dinosaurs it lived beside

Taylor & Francis Group

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Artist's reconstruction of Sonselasuchus cedrus in its environment in what is now Petrified Forest National Park, 215 million years ago.

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Credit: Artwork by Gabriel Ugueto

A “peculiar” ancient relative of the crocodile which experts believe began life on four legs before, in adulthood, it learnt how to walk on just two has been revealed in a new study.

Named Sonselasuchus cedrus, this archaic reptile was part of the shuvosaurid group, most of which had an appearance mimicking that of the ornithomimid dinosaurs that it shared the landscape with during Late Triassic time (approximately 225-201 million years ago).

In peer-reviewed findings, published today in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, experts from University of Washington Department of Biology and Burke Museum reveal that unusual proportions of some of the fossils led them to believe that this poodle-sized creature had to learn how to walk on two feet.

“By analyzing the proportions of the limb skeletons of different animals, they determined its bipedal stance (standing on two feet) may have been the result of a differential growth pattern,” explains lead author Elliott Armour Smith.

“We think that Sonselasuchus had more proportional forelimbs and hindlimbs as young, and their hindlimb grew longer and more robust through adulthood.

“Essentially, we think these creatures started out their lives on four legs… they then started walking on two legs as they grew up.

“This is particularly peculiar.”

Armour Smith, a graduate student, carried out the study alongside Burke Museum colleague Professor Christian Sidor.

Professor Sidor was among the dig team that unearthed the 950 Sonselasuchus fossils, in 2014, from Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park – an extraordinary fossil site which in 10 years of excavation and preparation has revealed more than 3,000 fossil bones.

Sonselasuchus’ fossils also reveal many clues about its appearance and 25-inch tall size. It had a toothless beak, a large eye socket, hollow bones, the experts believe.

“Although similar to the ornithomimid dinosaurs these features would have evolved separately,” explains Armour Smith, “and this similarity was probably due to the fact that croc-line and bird-line archosaurs evolved in the same ecosystems and converged upon similar ecological roles.

“Also, despite the fact that features like bipedalism, a toothless beak, hollow bones and a large orbit are characteristic of ornithomimid theropod dinosaurs, shuvosaurids like Sonselasuchus show that these features evolved on the croc-line as well.”

Sonselasuchus would have lived in the forest, and its name cedrus represents the cedar tree, an evergreen conifer similar to those of Late Triassic forests.

The Sonselasuchus part of the name (pronounced “sawn-SAY-la-SOOK-us”) is in recognition of the geologic unit (the Sonsela Member of the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation) from which the animal originates.

This bedrock has presented many finds to-date.

For Professor Sidor, this project is a culmination of over a decade of fieldwork in collaboration with the National Park Service.

“Since starting fieldwork at Petrified Forest in 2014, we have collected over 3,000 fossils from the Sonselasuchus bonebed, and it doesn’t seem to show any signs of petering out,” Professor Sidor states.

“In addition to Sonselasuchus, the bonebed has yielded fossils of fish, amphibians, as well as dinosaurs and other reptiles. Over 30 University of Washington students and volunteers have been involved over the years. It’s exciting to see that the site continues to produce new and interesting fossils.”

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Journal

Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology

DOI

10.1080/02724634.2025.2604859 

Article Title

Osteology and relationships of a new shuvosaurid (Pseudosuchia, Poposauroidea) from the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation of Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona, U.S.A.

Article Publication Date

9-Mar-2026