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New research debunks the dinosaur's roar

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GK86

Homeland Security Fail
From NPR podcast. Didn't see a thread.

New studies prove that dinosaurs may not have roared in their days on the earth. NPR's Linda Wertheimer talks to paleontologist Julia Clarke about her new discovery — the cooing sounds of dinosaurs.
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Linda Wertheimer, Host:

That is the familiar sound of a dinosaur roar - well, at least that's what Hollywood has led us to believe over the years. But what if a dinosaur actually sounded like this?

Wertheimer: According to new research, that cooing is much more likely what a dinosaur sounded like. Julia Clarke is a professor of paleontology and the lead author of a new study that may debunk the dinosaur's roar. She joins me now from KUT in Austin, Texas. Welcome to our program.

Julia Clarke: It's my pleasure.

Wertheimer: We've been going on the assumption - I suppose largely from movies - that dinosaurs made a big noise. They're such big creatures. Why do you think we're wrong.

Clarke: Most dinosaur sounds are based on models that are more like lions and tigers and bears. And we know that the two groups of animals alive today that are most closely related to extinct dinosaurs are birds and crocodilians. In fact, birds are living dinosaurs.

Wertheimer: So you look at the way birds make noises?

Clarke: Exactly. That's what we did in this particular study. We looked at one aspect of vocal behavior, which is whether the mouth is open or closed. And we looked at living dinosaurs - birds. We have 10,000 species today. Most of them vocalize, sing with an open mouth. But some birds produce sound with a closed mouth. They actually inflate different structures that allow them to resonate, often at lower frequencies than many other birds. But we also needed to look at alligators and crocodiles as the closest cousins to dinosaurs.

Wertheimer: Well, I have actually heard alligators bellow and make a terrific noise.

Clarke: Well, exactly, and that bellow is a closed-mouth sound. So when we think of our T. rex, we don't need to imagine just simple cooing. But there are a variety of generally low frequency sounds that are produced in this way.
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S

SenorArdilla

Member
tumblr_njxfywwhkp1scll6no4_1280.jpg
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Tweet.
 
S

SpaceWolf

Banned
Dinosaurs slowly getting emasculated.

In a hundred years, future generations will be wondering what the hell Alan Grant was so scared of in Jurassic Park.
 
S

Skii

Member
So glad Jurassic Park came out before all these uncool revelations. Imagine a big chicken being the mascot of such a treasured franchise.
 
V

Version 3.0

Member
Makes sense. Birds make some awesome sounds, though. No reason to fret.

Also: long story short: bipedal dinosaurs are just big, usually toothy birds. Is it really surprising every time we find out they have another bird-like feature?


edit:
brandonh83 said:
Do you guys still want Jurassic Park movies to be 100% scientifically accurate
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Let me add one more "yes, please". The accuracy (at the time) was perhaps the greatest thing about it, especially the book. Dinosaurs have only gotten more fascinating since then.
 
W

WhiteRabbitEXE

Member
brandonh83 said:
Do you guys still want Jurassic Park movies to be 100% scientifically accurate
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Considering that literally every dinosaur in every Jurassic Park movie/book is canonically a genetic chimera, not a 1:1 restoration, we really can't say they aren't accurate anyway. :p Checkmate, science.

Though obtaining 65 million year old DNA is still impossible without a time machine. :(
 
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