What did Tyrannosaurus sound like? The movies tell us that the dinosaur shrieked and roared, befitting its status as one of the largest carnivores of all time, but the truth is that we don’t really know. The soft tissues needed to reconstruct the dinosaur’s sounds have never been found, rendering the ancient bones mute. The same is true for almost every other species of non-avian dinosaur yet discovered. The only exceptions are the crested hadrosaurs, whose circuitous nasal passages have allowed paleontologists reconstruct their tuba-like calls.

Without preserved soft tissues, the nuances of the dinosaur vocal range remain out of earshot. But it’d be a mistake to simply lament the silence of the fossil record and move