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Scientists believe dinosaurs sounded like birds

Dinosaur Sounds - Level 0

Dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago. A new discovery gives us a better idea of what they sounded like. Scientists looked at a rare, 78-million-year-old fossil from a dinosaur. The fossil has an image of the dinosaur's voice box. Scientists say the shape of the voice box means it probably made bird-like sounds.

A dinosaur researcher did many tests on the shape of the voice box. He now has an idea of what the voice box muscles looked like. The muscles controlled the sounds. The research means movies like Jurassic Park got it wrong. Tyrannosaurus rex probably made a tweeting sound, like a bird.

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Dinosaur Sounds - Level 1

Dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago. We don't really know what they sounded like. Movies show dinosaurs making all kinds of roars and screams, but these are guesses, not real. A new discovery gives us a better idea of what dinosaurs sounded like. Scientists examined a rare, 78-million-year-old fossil from a dinosaur called an ankylosaur. The fossil has an image of the ankylosaur's voice box. The shape of this means it probably made bird-like sounds.

A dinosaur researcher in Japan did many tests on the shape of the fossilized voice box. He now has an idea of what the voice box muscles looked like. The muscles controlled the sounds. The research may mean that movies like Jurassic Park got it wrong. Tyrannosaurus rex probably made a tweeting sound, like a bird. Hollywood will have to change the roars in future dinosaur films to a tweet-tweet sound.

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11 online activities    |    8-page printable   (PDF)

Dinosaur Sounds - Level 2

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Dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago. We don't really know what they sounded like. There are many movies with dinosaurs making all kinds of roars and screams, but these noises are just guesses that movie directors make. A new discovery has given scientists a better idea of what dinosaurs sounded like. The scientists examined a rare fossil from a dinosaur called an ankylosaur. The fossil is 78 million years old. It includes a record of the ankylosaur's voice box. The scientists think the shape of the creature's voice box means it probably made bird-like sounds.

The research was led by a dinosaur researcher at the Fukushima Museum in Japan. He did many tests on the shape of the fossilized voice box. He compared it with the voice box of birds, crocodiles and turtles. He now has an idea of what the voice box muscles looked like. The muscles controlled the sounds of the voice box. The research may mean that movies like Jurassic Park got it wrong. Tyrannosaurus rex probably made more of a tweeting sound, like a bird. Hollywood may have to change its scary roars in future dinosaur films to a tweet-tweet sound.

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11 online activities    |    8-page printable   (PDF)

Dinosaur Sounds - Level 3

Dinosaurs disappeared 65 million years ago, so we don't really know what they sounded like. Of course, there are many movies with dinosaurs making all kinds of roars, screeches and screams. However, these noises are just guesses that movie directors make about how dinosaurs sounded. A new discovery has given scientists a better idea of the kinds of sounds dinosaurs made. The scientists examined a rare fossil. It was from a spiky, armoured dinosaur called an ankylosaur. The fossil is around 78 million years old. It includes a record of the ankylosaur's voice box. It is the world's oldest fossil of a voice box. The scientists believe the shape of the creature's voice box means it probably made bird-like sounds.

The research was led by Professor Junki Yoshida, a dinosaur researcher at the Fukushima Museum in Japan. Dr Yoshida did many tests on the shape of the fossilized voice box. He compared it with the voice box of dozens of birds, crocodiles, lizards and turtles. They now have a good idea of what the muscles around the voice box looked like. The muscles controlled the windpipe and sounds of the voice box. Yoshida's research may mean that movies like Jurassic Park got it wrong. Millions of years ago, the Tyrannosaurus rex probably made more of a tweeting sound, like a bird. Hollywood may have to change its scary roars and growls in future dinosaur films to a tweet-tweet sound.

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