This Dinosaur's Cry Could Have Sounded Like a Huge Trumpet

Researcher draws on Parasaurolophus skull structure to build a device that emulates how the ancient creatures sounded.

By Paul Smaglik
Nov 22, 2024 7:00 PMNov 22, 2024 7:11 PM
Parasaurolophus illustration from the Cretaceous period
(Credit: Warpaint/Shutterstock)

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When Hongjun Lin from New York University revisited the Jurassic Park films, something didn’t sound quite right. Lin, a dinosaur aficionado since his youth, was pretty sure the calls the creatures made were inaccurate. He was particularly focused on Parasaurolophus, a creature with a crest on the back of its head.

“What if I told you that the sound of Parasaurolophus in the film Jurassic Park is not true?” Lin addressed a virtual press conference before presenting a research report on how the dino probably sounded at an Acoustical Society of America conference.

What Did Parasaurolophus Really Sound Like?

It turns out that the film’s audio engineer mashed up and altered various animal sounds to come up with the creatures’ calls. For Parasaurolophus, Lin is pretty sure the sound engineer combined processed cries of baby whales and alligators.

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