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By studying the rate of evolutionary change in the bony labyrinth, the international team proposed that climate change may have been an important environmental catalyst in promoting the locomotor diversification of apes and humans.

They examined the rigid structure of the inner ear called the bony labyrinth.

"We find that open-ocean thalattosuchians developed strikingly compact and thickened bony labyrinth after a long semiaquatic phase and after modifying their skeleton to become better swimmers," the researchers wrote in the study's abstract.

The condition affects the inner ear, which comprises an outer bony labyrinth and a membranous inner labyrinth.

Also called the bony labyrinth, the area in question is a set of three twisting cavities, one oriented along each axis of the body.