What sound did the dinosaurs make?

We tend to be that dinosaurs were roaring that make the ground tremble, but the latest research shows that this is probably wrong.

« You would feel it more than you would hear – a deep, visceral pulse, emerging from somewhere beyond the dense foliage. Like the hum of a fog siren, they would vibrate on your chest and get up the hair on your neck, « says paleontologist Tom Williamson.

In the dense forests of the Cretaceous period, this sound would be scary.

Dinosaur variety, variety of sounds

Dinosaurs dominated the planet for about 179 million years and had a huge variety of size and shape. From the tiny albinykus, weighing less than one kilo, to the giant titanic Patagotitan Mayorum, which weighed over 70 tonnes.

This variety also meant a variety of the sounds they produced. But the problem is that the sound is not fought. That is, we do not have immediate evidence of how they were heard, and we rely on cases, bone analyzes and comparison with modern animals.

Parasaurolophus’s digital voice

A very important discovery was made in 1995, when he was found in the Museum of Natural History of New Mexico a nearly whole skull of Parasaurolophus, a dinosaur with a characteristic huff at the top of his head.

Skeletal exhibition table by P. cyrtocristatus at the Field Museum of Natural History.

Using computed tomography, scientists created a digital simulation of the internal structure of this crest. As Williamson describes, the resulting sound was « unreal » and resembled a deep buzz that resonated than in roar.

The scientific explanation is that the air blowing through the crest created sound waves such as when we blow over the jug of a jug, producing a special sound.

Was the dinosaurs ‘dinner’?

But not all dinosaurs or special instruments for sound production had. In fact, we have no fossilized elements that prove the existence of vocal cavities in most of them. Some scientists think they may have been « uncomfortable » or communicated with sounds very different from the roar.

Paleontologist Julia Clarke from the University of Texas discovered something impressive: in a fossilized bird from the dinosaur era, the Vegavis Iaai found mineralized rings of a syringe – the instrument that produces sound in birds.

This shows that the instrument that produces sound in the birds can be petrified, and therefore its absence in most dinosaur fossils may be real and not a result of lack of data.

Pinacosaurus’s voice

One of the few fossilized vocal instruments found in a non-bird dinosaur is by Pinacosaurus Grangeri, a shielded dinosaur with a Ropalo tail, living about 80 million years ago.

A Pinacosaurus Source: Mongoliandinosaurs.org

The study of fossils shows that Pinacosaurus probably produced « strong, explosive screams and complex vocal expressions », proving that some dinosaurs had more complex vocal communication skills.

Probability of sounds with a closed mouth

Clarke concludes that the dinosaurs almost certainly did not roar like the big mammals today, but rather the sounds of the mouth closed, inflating the soft tissues of their throat.

Also, the sound with open mouth would be aggressive and rare, as it would warn prey or competitors, which does not always serve predators.

« The Jurassic Park movies are wrong, » Clarke laughs.

« Many of the first remodeling of dinosaurs have been influenced by what we are currently connecting with scary sounds from large mammals of predators such as lions. In the Jurassic Park movies they used some crocodile voices for the big dinosaurs, but on the screen the dinosaurs have their mouths open like roar lions. They would not do this, especially not before attacking or eating their prey. The predators do not do this – it would warn the other animals near that they have found food and would warn their prey to be there. « 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM1PV3RNHC8

Dinosaur ears: What did they hear?

Studies of dinosaur skulls have also provided information about their acoustic capacity.

The dinosaurs had only the anabolist in their middle ear, as opposed to the mammals that have three bones, and therefore they probably heard a more limited range of frequencies.

On the other hand, a detailed study of a kind of tyrannosaurus revealed that it had unusually long screw conductors, which suggests that he could hear more sneaky sounds than many other dinosaurs.

Researcher Bhart-Anjan Bhullar believes that this ability is linked to parental care and the use of vocal calls by small dinosaurs to attract their parents’ attention.

So, could the young dinosaurs have been singing in their nests to draw their parents’ attention, as neonatal birds do today? Bhullar believes it is possible.

Away from human perception

The ability to hear and produce many different sounds was of great importance. It could help detect predators, find game, but also in communication between dinosaurs.

We know that at least some dinosaurs may have been hunting in herds, so communication would be necessary for their coordination and survival.

Most thunder screams we imagine are frequencies too low for the human ear to hear.

They are ultrasounds traveling long distances, ideal for giant size animals.

Julia Clarke explains: « There is a relationship between body size and the frequency of the sound they produce. The dinosaurs did not produce sounds that man can hear. « 

« But they will feel them. »