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Related: About this forumAncient bird from dinosaur era probably sounded like duck
Ancient bird from dinosaur era probably sounded like duck
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Oct 12, 2016 , Last Updated: 7:36 PM ET
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina Scientists for years have known what birds living at the end of the age of dinosaurs looked like. Now, they say they might know what one sounded like: quack!
The team of scientists says the Vegavis iaai bird that lived in Antarcticas Vega Island more than 70 million years ago probably sounded like a modern-day duck. They based their findings on unearthed fossils of the birds sound-producing vocal organ known as the syrinx.
We can now say that its most probable that this bird... imitated a sound that can be compared to its living relatives, ducks and geese, Argentine paleontologist Fernando Novas said at a news conference in Buenos Aires on Wednesday after the team published their conclusions in the journal Nature.
The importance of this discovery is that it lets us ascertain how the dinosaurs, including birds, evolved in the way they communicated with each other and how this organ that was capable of emitting sound, permitted brain development.
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