Scientists use lasers and AI to hear how Jurassic insects may have sounded

For 165 million years, the sounds made by insects living alongside dinosaurs were lost to time. Scientists have now recreated some of those calls using fossilised wings, studies of living insects, computer modelling and artificial intelligence.According to Smithsonian Magazine, the research focused on nine extinct insect species related to modern crickets and katydids. The team studied 20 fossil specimens found in Inner Mongolia, China. The fossils preserved important details of the insects’ wings, including structures that were used to produce sound.Researchers say the results offer the best evidence-based approximation so far of what part of a Jurassic forest may have sounded like. Their work was published on August 25 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, along with audio samples of the reconstructed calls.The work also revealed something unexpected. One of the insects, Sigmaboilus peregrinus, appears to have produced sounds between 20 and 22 kilohertz.