This wild new instrument brings a dinosaur back to life

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If you’ve ever wondered what a dinosaur might have actually sounded like, now there’s a way to find out.

It comes in the form of the Dinosaur Choir, a musical instrument created by artists Courtney Brown and Cezary Gajewski. The instrument, which takes the form of an accurate, life-sized dinosaur skull, allows human musicians to recreate possible dinosaur vocalizations by blowing into a mouthpiece. It’s set to debut this weekend at the 27th Guthman Competition, a global contest to select the year’s most innovative new instrument of the future. The 10 semi-finalists hail from seven different countries, proposing prototypes that include everything from a customizable trumpet to a kind of guitar-harp combo and a flute-esque instrument called the “Udderbot.” 

Each of the contenders presents new musical possibilities, whether through the form of the instrument, the sound it produces, the user input, or some combination of the three. The Dinosaur Choir takes an extensive body of research into the anatomy of the adult Corythosaurus dinosaur and converts it into a playable, interactive experience—letting the musician actually embody the extinct creature itself.

[Image: courtesy Guthman Musical Instrument Competition]

Building an accurate dinosaur skull

To begin mapping out the structure of the Dinosaur Choir, Brown and Gajewski first partnered up with paleontologist Thomas Dudgeon at the Royal Ontario Museum/University of Toronto, who provided them with a CT scan of a fossilized Corythosaurus skull. The scan allowed them to create an initial model of the dinosaur’s skull and nasal passage structure. 

Then, using this 3D skull, Dudgeon and Brown carried out a process called “retrodeformation.” This is essentially a kind of restoration, performed using existing diagrams and scientific papers for reference, to resolve any damage to the structure caused by prolonged burial.

“After a skull is buried underneath the ground for millions of years, parts of it crush or bend,” Brown explains. “We use 3D modeling to restore the fossil so that it is closer to its original form.”

With the retrodeformation step complete, the Corythosaurus skull replica (including internal nasal passages) was ready to be 3D printed. Next, Brown set out to encode the dinosaur’s actual vocalizations. 

“Researchers in biology and human anatomy have created computational models of the mechanics of the voice: human, bird, and alligator,” Brown says. “These are sets of mathematical equations that describe the air pressure change (ie, sound) that result from the biological and physical processes of the vocal folds. [. . .] I take these equations and put them into computer code to create sound in real-time.”

Brown started by recreating bird vocal models based on existing models of the syrinx, or the avian vocal box. Then, she says, “because the sound is created by simulating the physical anatomy with math,” she was able to modify the model to fit with estimated dinosaur anatomy. 

We may never know exactly how dinosaurs sounded

Despite all of these steps, there’s still an inevitable uncertainty as to the accuracy of the final sounds. No non-avian dinosaur vocal organs have yet been found, Brown says, as the vocal organs tend to be made of soft tissue such as cartilage, and therefore are much less likely to fossilize or preserve. 

“Additionally, vocalization is a behavior,” Brown adds. “An animal can potentially make more sounds using their anatomy than they actually produce—this is true on an individual level but also on a species level. This behavior is very difficult—perhaps impossible—to detect via the fossil record. What traces would the sounds leave behind?”

To account for this variability, Brown made two different vocal models for the Dinosaur Choir: one based on a dove syrinx and one based on a raven syrinx. Currently, she notes, she’s also working on a third model based on an alligator larynx, “as it is not settled science whether most dinosaurs had vocal organs closer to alligators or birds.” 

The Dinosaur Choir is controlled by a camera and microphone, which detect the users’ mouth shape and breath, respectively. By manipulating these inputs, the musician can essentially “play” the Corythosaurus’ theorized vocal cords across a range of pitches and volumes, from a high, bright call to a low, almost mournful groan. 

Ultimately, we may never know exactly how our extinct predecessors sounded when they walked the Earth—but with the Dinosaur Choir, we can get pretty damn close.

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