Have You Ever Wondered Why Dinosaurs Sounded Like? Well We Might Have the Answer

And it’s far less terrifying than in the movies.

Transcript

00:00What did dinosaurs sound like?

00:05If you're a 90s kid, something like this no doubt comes to mind.

00:12But it turns out the gigantic creatures that lumbered around the planet hundreds of millions

00:16of years ago likely didn't sound very ferocious at all.

00:19Researchers discovered a particularly well-preserved ankylosaur in the Gobi Desert basin way back

00:23in 2005, and that creature had fossilized bones in its throat.

00:27Bones that they believe were used for making sounds.

00:30Flash forward to 2023, and paleontologists from the Hokkaido University Museum in Japan

00:35and the American Museum of Natural History now believe those bones were a voice box.

00:39When examined by animal vocal experts, they found that these structures are quite similar

00:43to both modern-day reptiles and modern-day birds.

00:46Meaning rather than terrifying roars, at least these dinosaurs were more likely to chirp

00:50like birds or make sounds like present-day crocodiles.

00:53Of course the researchers say they can't be 100% sure of what anything that's been

00:57dead for millions of years sounded like.

00:59But they add the diverse sounds these complex structures could have made would likely have

01:02been quote related to courtship, parental call, predator defense, and territorial calls.