If birds are living dinosaurs—”the only survivors of the mass extinction that wiped out their giant relatives 65 million years ago”—then did dinosaurs really sound like the roaring mammals that we’ve heard in the movies? Probably not.
In this episode of Science Magic Show Hooray, Anna Rothschild meets up with Joe Hanson of It’s Okay to Be Smart to visit with Dr. Julia Clarke, Professor of Paleontology at the University of Texas in Austin. She clues us in on some recent dinosaur science, including what they sounded like.
Clarke explains that large birds like the ostrich or the dinosaurs’ crocodile cousins are better models for dinosaur sounds, and she’s got a fossilized avian vocal organ from the Mesozoic to help confirm it. She also discusses the fossilized evidence that reveals dinosaur feather colors.
Related listening, via @bookpower4kids, from our friends at Tumble Science Podcast for Kids: The Call of the Antarctic Dinosaur with Julia Clarke.
Watch more related dino and bird link videos on TKSST:
• Dinosaurs Among Us
• How do we know what color dinosaurs were?
• How did feathers evolve?
Bonus: Dinosaur’s Feathered Tail Found Remarkably Preserved in Amber.
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