The Animals Hiding in a T. Rex’s Roar

Instead of producing the terror you may suspect, cinema’s most famous roar would probably just confuse a lot of animals. If you made it to the recently re-released 3D edition of Jurassic Park, you’re going to hear a dreadful sound that terrified audiences two decades ago. Tramping through the rain and the mud, the tyrant lizard bursts onto the screen and bellows a soul-shuddering shriek. It’s a noise that is almost as iconic as any other visual effect (which all still hold up, 20 years later) from the film. But no one has actually heard a T. rex roar (or likely ever will), so how do we know if the sound that shook audiences twenty years ago is accurate? Bones and teeth and, if we’re lucky, soft tissues may fossilize, but roars do not. We have only a few clues as to what dinosaurs actually sounded like (if they even ...