How do Paleontologist know what sounds dinosaurs made?

Question

I know that it's a silly question but i've always wanted to know. For all people know, dinosaurs could have sounded like ducks ("quack"). what ways do they determine that a dinosaur goes "roar"?

Answer 1

Not so fast you skeptics!

Sound is in fact a very well understood phenomenon. When energy is released into a column of air, the column will vibrate according to its length. Short lengths produce high pitches, and longer lengths produce lower pitches.

Secondly, when energy is released into a fiber, sound can be produced if the fiber is tight enough to vibrate. These facts can be observed in everything from piccolos and chihuahuas on the high frequency end to oboes and alligators on the low frequency end.

Measuring fossils gives both the length of resonating chambers and the lengths of throat tissues. Even if there is a general guesstimate involved, based on the fact that you are looking at a rock - the fossil - the physical properties are still measurable.

Big headed and long necked animals that make sounds in their throat make big low sounds that are generally called 'roar' rather than 'quack.'

;-D Whales make their sounds in a totally different way, and their sounds could be ultrasonic to some degree, that is, too high for humans to hear.

Answer 2

John R is correct. For most dinosaurs, it's pure conjecture and speculation, based on analogy from vaguely related critters like crocodiles and alligators. Fossils simply don't leave the kind of evidence that would allow for an accurate description of a dinosaur's sound.

Numerous hadrosaurs had hollow crests on their heads, connected to their nasal passages. Once upon a time, it was speculated that these crests may have acted like air reservoirs or even snorkels while the dinosaurs grazed on plants under the water's surface. However, more evidence later showed that the so-called 'duck-billed dinosaurs' were pretty much exclusively dry land critters, and didn't go dabbling like giant ducks at all.

So then the speculation began about what the heck those hollow crests were for. Reconstructions of some of the crests were made, and scientists blew into them and discovered they could create loud, bugling notes. Sound is an important cue used by many modern herd animals to maintain contact with each other, find mates, challenge rivals, mark territories, call offspring and many other social functions. More and more evidence also shows that the hadrosaurs were indeed herd critters, so the speculation that the crests were used to create noise seems more and more plausible.

Pretty much everything else is pure speculation though. Some paleontologists point out that birds came from dinosaurs, and use that to speculate that perhaps dinosaurs chirped and sang like birds. Although the most 'primitive' birds today, like the ostrich, penguins, and kiwi aren't exactly noted for their melodious calls, other 'primitive' groups like loons and grebes are - so who knows for sure what their dinosaur ancestors sounded like?

Answer 3

As people have said, in most cases, it's a guess ("educated guess" or not). However, there was a group of dinosaurs called hadrosaurs, some of which had large, odd-shaped hollow crests on their heads (look up Corythosaurus or Lambeosaurus for examples). A few years back a fellow made casts of some known crests to see what noises they would make if blown into like a tuba. I believe that was the source of some of the sounds used in Jurassic Park.

Answer 4

Zoologists study animals. Look how they are built and search for "rules" which aply to them. Then, based on this knowledge, paleontologists make extrapolations. It is quite difficult science and there is still room for a artistic interpretation. What they do is only an educated guess.

Answer 5

They don't know what sounds dinosaurs made.
They san make guesses on the basis of the
kinds of sounds living reptiles make - the roaring
of alligators, for example, but guesses is all
they are.

Answer 6

They're just guessing, but a lot of it has to do with the shapes of the skulls, etc. Again, just guesses! It'd be interesting to see a T-rex quack, LOL.

Answer 7

its a projection based on the size of the bones in the neck and a vocal chord area, along with how similar classifications of animals sound. so, of a bird of a certain size makes a noise they can hypothesize that a bigger bone structure would deepen the sound.

Answer 8

probably the same way in which they determine what color they were, although I have never heard an alligator roar, but hey thats just me

Answer 9

I think they're guessing. I don't think there's any way to know what sound they made.

Answer 10

Don't worry about it, they don't. I suppose you could say they make 'educated guesses' but they really don't know.