Dinosaurs didn’t roar: Why many were likelier to chirp like birds
In films and television documentaries,dinosaursoften roar like lions. But in fact, there is no evidence to suggest that they made such noises. On the contrary, the existing evidence suggests they didn’t, for a couple of reasons.
First, a lion’sroar is made possible bythe big cat’svocal cords: folds of tissue in theirthroats. We also have vocal cords, as do many animals, but those of lions are fine-tuned to make loud and intense noises, and there’s no direct fossil evidencethatdinosaurs had these same structures.
Second, dinosaurs were the ancestors of birds, so it’s likely some made more bird-like noises. One 2016 study argued thatsome dinosaurs made closed-mouth vocalisations像“繁荣'ostrichesmake。现代birdshave avoice box, called asyrinx, that allows them tochirp. A syrinx was recently found fossilised in a bird that lived in the Cretaceous, raising the possibility that some non-bird dinosaurs had syrinxes too.
Read more:
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- Did T. Rex actually have feathers?
- Absolutely everything you want to know about dinosaurs
- Given the immense time period that dinosaurs existed for, why did none of them develop sentience?
Asked by: Steven Riley, Aberdeen
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