And it’s far less terrifying than in the movies.
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00:00What did dinosaurs sound like?
00:05If you're a 90s kid, something like this no doubt comes to mind.
00:12But it turns out the gigantic creatures that lumbered around the planet hundreds of millions
00:16of years ago likely didn't sound very ferocious at all.
00:19Researchers discovered a particularly well-preserved ankylosaur in the Gobi Desert basin way back
00:23in 2005, and that creature had fossilized bones in its throat.
00:27Bones that they believe were used for making sounds.
00:30Flash forward to 2023, and paleontologists from the Hokkaido University Museum in Japan
00:35and the American Museum of Natural History now believe those bones were a voice box.
00:39When examined by animal vocal experts, they found that these structures are quite similar
00:43to both modern-day reptiles and modern-day birds.
00:46Meaning rather than terrifying roars, at least these dinosaurs were more likely to chirp
00:50like birds or make sounds like present-day crocodiles.
00:53Of course the researchers say they can't be 100% sure of what anything that's been
00:57dead for millions of years sounded like.
00:59But they add the diverse sounds these complex structures could have made would likely have
01:02been quote related to courtship, parental call, predator defense, and territorial calls.