[EvaH (OP)]

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?

[evan_au]

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: