I take moths' hearing as evidence for Cretaceous echolocators. Other insects? Pterosaurs? Birds? Flying mammals that were not bats? Proto-crypto-bats? Could be any of them, or several. Most terrestrial species disappeared, so most of the interesting ones did.<p>It is amazing to be able to deduce the past existence of creatures that left no physical trace.
Apparently was a (sophisticated) just so story ...
<a href="http://www.boop.org/jan/justso/" rel="nofollow">http://www.boop.org/jan/justso/</a>
To be so gleeful in its disdain for a couple of goofy mistakes, TFA misuses the language in such a way as to perpetuate a similar sort of mistake. "So bees invented butterflies?" "...moths then transformed their existing ears..." Yuck. Sure, it's just metaphor, but this sort of metaphor has historically caused a lot of confusion about evolution. Intent is not a feature of natural selection. Atlantic readers have a hard enough time with this as it is; they certainly don't need to read this pseudo-creationist garbage.