American scientists have recreated the sound of a tyrannosaur's roar and called it the scariest one ever heard, reports The Telegraph.
Naturalist Chris Packham and professor of vertebrate paleontology at the University of Texas at Austin Julia Clark reproduced the "voice" of an ancient predator to test the hypothesis that dinosaurs did not growl, like, for example, today's carnivorous mammals, and made sounds more like birdsong.
“The most eerie sounds in modern nature are made by predators - the howl of a wolf, the roar of a tiger - but now experts doubt that the tyrannosaurus 'sounded' in any way like them,” says Packham.
The closest relatives of dinosaurs are birds, as well as alligators and crocodiles. Therefore, when reconstructing the "voice" of a predator, scientists took as a basis the sounds made by a large drink and a Chinese alligator. The researchers also considered how the size of the tyrannosaurs could affect their "roar".
The result was an ominous low rumble - such sounds had not been heard on Earth for about 66 million years.
According to Professor Clarke, our aversion to these sounds is due to innate memory.
“Everyone thinks that you have to growl, and only then will it be really scary, but this (the rumble of a tyrannosaur) is the scariest sound you will ever hear. I don't know if we have any deep adaptive response to low-frequency sounds, but I wouldn't be surprised,”said Clarke.
According to scientists, the tyrannosaurus did not even need to open its mouth to emit a threatening rumble. This low frequency sound could travel long distances.
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