Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Geology, Palaeontology & Archaeology => Topic started by: EvaH on 11/05/2020 13:14:32
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Paul wants to know:
Scientists have been trying to work out how dinosaurs sounded. From looking at photos of my ancestors would it be possible to work out how they sounded? I presume you would need to have a selection of photos showing front, back and sides. I presume beards would be an impediment to determining how they sounded as you would not get a good look at the throat and cheeks.
What do you think?
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A recent experiment recreated the vocal tract of a long-dead Egyptian mummy.
- The researchers were able to do a 3D image of the mummy in a CAT Scanner
- They rebuilt the throat with a 3D printer
See: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51223828
It is unlikely that your ancestors would have a CAT scanned image of their throat
- But if it was recent enough to have a photograph, it may also be recent enough to have a voice recording of your ancestors?
The problem with reconstructing dinosaur noises is that very few fossils preserve the soft tissues of the throat.
- So you make generalizations like "The bigger the dinosaur, the lower-frequency their noises"
- For anything bigger than a rhinoceros, most of the noise would be at a too low in frequency for humans to hear
- There are a few exceptions, like the dinosaur with hollow trumpet-like structure on its head: