Parasaurolophus crest modelled to study dinosaur sound
The Parasaurolophus was a duck-billed dinosaur known for its unique crest that lived 70 to 80 million years ago. Its distinguishing feature is the crest on its head which has puzzled palaeontologists for years.
While the fossils may give us an idea how the ancient animals may have looked, it seems they can also give us an idea of the sound they made. Hongjun Lin from New York University is presenting results on the acoustic characteristics of a physical model of the crest on the head of the Parasaurolophus.
“I’ve been fascinated by giant animals ever since I was a kid. I’d spend hours reading books, watching movies, and imagining what it would be like if dinosaurs were still around today,” said Lin. “It wasn’t until college that I realized the sounds we hear in movies and shows — while mesmerizing — are completely fabricated using sounds from modern animals. That’s when I decided to dive deeper and explore what dinosaurs might have actually sounded like.”
Lin created a physical setup from tubes to represent a mathematical model. This will allow researchers to discover what is happening acoustically in the animal’s crest. The model was inspired by resonance chambers and was suspended by cotton threads, excited by a small speaker, while a microphone was used to collect frequency data.
It is not a perfect replica of the Parasaurolophus but the pipes, nicknamed liniphone after the researcher, will provide a verification of the mathematical framework.
“I wanted something simplified and accessible for both modeling and building a physical device,” according to Lin. His initial results suggests that the animal crest were used to resonate sound, something we see in modern birds with crests.
The mathematical model is not finished but Lin hopes it will be handy for studying creatures with similar vocal structures. He hopes to create an accessible plug-in for people to experiment with dinosaur sound and even add it to music.
“Once we have a working model, we’ll move toward using fossil scans,” Lin said. “My ultimate goal is to re-create the sound of the Parasaurolophus.”
Image: Gary Todd from Xinzheng, China
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