Talk:Therocephalia

external ears?
Therocephalians have recesses in the back of their skulls which ar similar to the ones found in the back of the skulls of animal in the order Carnivora. the ears in Carnivorans are always set above these recesses, so is it possible that Therocephalians had external ears?--50.195.51.9 (talk) 17:43, 18 December 2012 (UTC)
 * I'm pretty sure those are for jaw muscle attachment, not ears. The ears are behind them in modern mammals, not above. FunkMonk (talk) 14:59, 8 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Also, external ears are usually associated with eardrums. As far as I know the earliest therapsids to show eardrums are chiniquodontids (see this paper), which are much more closely related to mammals than are the therocephalians. Smokeybjb (talk) 01:49, 11 January 2013 (UTC)