A 3D-printed duck-billed dinosaur’s skull could help us learn what it sounded like

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While the roar of the mighty Tyrannosaurs rex in the Jurassic Park film franchise is pretty terrifying, it was actually created by Hollywood special effects wizards using the sounds of a baby elephant. We don’t really know what types of sounds dinosaurs made, but paleontologists can use fossils to get some ideas.

Now, a 3D-printed model could be a first step in figuring out what a duck-billed dinosaur called the Parasaurolophus sounded like. Using Parasaurolophus fossils, researcher Hongjun Lin from New York University created a model of the extinct giant’s signature head crest. Lin is presenting the model November 21 at the 187th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America.

Parasaurolophus was a plant-eating dinosaur that lived around 77 to 73 million years ago in present day North America. This dinosaur is known for a crest on the top of its head, similar to a cockatoo or tufted titmouse. It lived and was about 16 feet tall and weighed roughly 6,000 to 8,000 pounds.

“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,” Lin said in a statement. “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.”

Using tubes, Lin created a physical setup of Parasaurolophus’ crest. The tubes also represent a mathematical model that can help researchers figure out what was happening acoustically inside the crest. The physical model was inspired by resonance chambers–a structure that enhances the transfer of energy from a sound source, like the string of a guitar. It is suspended by cotton threads and triggered by a small speaker. A microphone was used to collect frequency data.

a 3D printed model of a dinosaur skull — *A 3D-printed model of the Parasaurolophus skulls at a 1:3 scale to the original fossil. The white model is the nasal passages inside the skull. CREDIT: Hongjun Lin*

While the model is not a perfect replication of the Parasaurolophus, the pipes—nicknamed the ‘Linophone’ after Lin—will be a verification of the mathematical framework for what the dinosaur may have sounded like.

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

The initial results indicate that the Parasaurolophus’ crest was used for resonance. This occurs when an object vibrates after being hit by sound waves at a higher amplitude, like when a drummer hits a drum and the instrument and air vibrate to create a loud sound. Modern birds like peacocks and peahens also have a crest that produces resonance.

While the mathematical model is still in progress, Lin hopes it will also be useful for studying living animals with similar vocal structures. He is also planning to make an accessible plug-in so others can experiment with and even add dinosaur sounds to electronic 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.”