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As the researchers write at one point, despite losing part of the palate and braincase, "the remainder of the skull is well-preserved, even showing a full arrangement of palpebral ossicles in place."

You can clearly discern the individual calcite plates, or ossicles, that made up the skeletal frames of these animals when they were alive.

In most birds, the individual bones, called scleral ossicles, are simple and fairly square.

The opening at the centre of these ossicles is narrow, restricting access for light into the eye and providing strong evidence that Oculudentavis was active in well-lit, daytime environments.

Reptiles and birds all have only one middle-ear bone—the bones that would otherwise be their “ossicles” are instead fused with the joints of their jaw.