Triassic "three-eyed" reptile discovered in Texas

[sauroid]

Triopticus primus: a newly discovered strange Triassic reptile from Texas


http://www.eartharchives.org/articles/triassic-three-eyed-reptile-discovered-in-texas/

[Derek.McManus]

Very interesting...such diversity!

[Libraraptor]

http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(16)30860-0

This is another information. I don´t like this "three eyed" - thing, it´s even embarrassing, since ther was no vertebrate with three eyes , but  I guess science needs blatant keywords to get attention.

[DinoToyForum]

http://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(16)30860-0

This is another information. I don´t like this "three eyed" - thing, it´s even embarrassing, since ther was no vertebrate with three eyes , but  I guess science needs blatant keywords to get attention.

Agreed. The pineal foramen doesn't even make the abstract of the actual paper. The relevant section from the link in the first post is this: "A secondary hypothesis that the authors consider less likely, is that the pit represents a pineal eye, a light sensing patch of skin that communicates directly to the pineal gland in the brain. They regard this as less likely because there is no clear communication from the pit to the brain in the fossil, and no archosauriforms are known to retain pineal eyes."

In other words, the three-eyed claim is media hyperbole. They found a dodgy hook and ran with it.

A pineal opening is nothing special anyway, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, mosasaurs, all have one, as do many reptile groups.

[Jose S.M.]

The thing that caught my attention more was the head bumps actually, I knew that the third eye was probably a pineal opening. And use it even when it's not an important part is lame, it would be better to advertising it as a some headed reptile or something on those lines.

[Papi-Anon]

I'll be honest, the first thing I thought when I read the thread title was that this was an ancestor/relative of the Tuatara when it mentioned it being 'three-eyed'.