A Nocturnal Dinosaur With Eyes and Ears Like an Owl 08/05/2021 Fossils of Shuvuuia deserti depict a small predatory creature with exceptional night vision and hearing. Image: Mick Ellison/American Natural History Museum, CC BY-ND Today, barn owls, bats, leopards and many other animals rely on their keen senses to live and hunt under the dim light of stars. These nighttime specialists avoid the competition of daylight hours, hunting their prey under the cloak of darkness, often using a combination of night vision and acute hearing. But was there nightlife 100 million years ago? In a world without owls or leopards, were dinosaurs working the night shift? If so, what senses did they use to find food and avoid predators in the darkness? To better understand the senses of the dinosaur ancestors of birds, our team of paleontologists and palaeobiologists scoured research papers and museum collections looking for fossils that preserved delicate eye and ear structures. And we found some.