The Parasaurolophus' pipes: Modeling the dinosaur's crest to study its sound

The Parasaurolophus is a duck-billed dinosaur with a unique crest that lived 70 million to 80 million years ago. It stood around 16 feet tall and is estimated to have weighed 6,000 to 8,000 pounds.

Hongjun Lin from New York University will present results on the acoustic characteristics of a physical model of the Parasaurolophus' crest Thursday, Nov. 21 as part of the virtual 187th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, running Nov. 18-22, 2024.

"I've been fascinated by giant animals ever since I was a kid. I'd spend hours reading books, watching movies, and imagining what it would be like if dinosaurs were still around today," said Lin. "It wasn't until college that I realized the sounds we hear in movies and shows -- while mesmerizing -- are completely fabricated using sounds from modern animals. That's when I decided to dive deeper and explore what dinosaurs might have actually sounded like."

Lin created a physical setup made of tubes to represent a mathematical model that will allow researchers to discover what was happening acoustically inside the Parasaurolophus crest. The physical model, inspired by resonance chambers, was suspended by cotton threads and excited by a small speaker, and a microphone was used to collect frequency data.

While it isn't a perfect replication of the Parasaurolophus, the pipes -- nicknamed the "Linophone," after the researcher -- will serve as a verification of the mathematical framework.

"I wanted something simplified and accessible for both modeling and building a physical device," Lin explained.

Lin's initial results indicate that the Parasaurolophus' crest was used for resonance, similar to the crests of birds we see today. The mathematical model is still in progress, but Lin hopes it will be useful for studying animals with similar vocal structures.

He is also planning to create an accessible plug-in for people to experiment with and even add dinosaur sounds to music.

"Once we have a working model, we'll move toward using fossil scans," Lin said. "My ultimate goal is to re-create the sound of the Parasaurolophus."