# How loud is the roar of a dinosaur? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 8, 2015, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-loud-is-the-roar-of-a-dinosaur/724533 "2015-07-08T00:27:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2015, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-loud-is-the-roar-of-a-dinosaur/724533/1 "2015-07-08T00:27:42Z")
Given their immense size, how loud would the call of a Brontosaur be to our sensors? Or the roar of a T-Rex? ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2015, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-loud-is-the-roar-of-a-dinosaur/724533/2 "2015-07-08T01:58:55Z")
Having done absolutely no research since I was eight years old, I’d like to start with a question: Are “they” sure dinos made ANY sounds, let alone roaring? Thank you, Dr. Rhombus. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2015, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-loud-is-the-roar-of-a-dinosaur/724533/3 "2015-07-08T02:19:14Z")
One can’t be sure, of course, but considering that the dinosaurs’ closest living relatives, the birds and the [crocodilians](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkh3sknNnkI), are both quite vocal, it’s very likely dinosaurs were too. Some hadrosaurs like[_Parasaurolophus_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parasaurolophus) had large crests formed from extended nasal bones that may have been used to produce [loud calls.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtpSOpUDCb8) ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2015, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-loud-is-the-roar-of-a-dinosaur/724533/4 "2015-07-08T02:48:55Z")
How load IS the roar of a dinosaur? What alternate universe do you come from, OP? ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2015, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-loud-is-the-roar-of-a-dinosaur/724533/5 "2015-07-08T02:50:38Z")
Excellent points, **Colibri** , I should’ve figured that out myself. Back to **LR** ’s query: since a T-Rex is 10 times bigger than a croc\*, would it be 10 times louder? \*Total speculation ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2015, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-loud-is-the-roar-of-a-dinosaur/724533/6 "2015-07-08T08:44:25Z")
I’m sure a T-Rex must be at least 1000 times larger than a modern macaw. [If the call if the T-Rex is 1000 times louder than a macaw, it must be truly earth-shattering.](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/8376952/Quentin-Tarantino-sues-over-neighbours-macaws-driving-him-to-distraction.html) ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2015, 9:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-loud-is-the-roar-of-a-dinosaur/724533/7 "2015-07-08T09:39:46Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > How load IS the roar of a dinosaur? > > What alternate universe do you come from, OP? One in which the call of Wildious Turkeysarus is louder than I’d like. :o ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2015, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-loud-is-the-roar-of-a-dinosaur/724533/8 "2015-07-08T10:49:07Z")
Are there any non-mammals that roar? Crocs bellow and gurgle, lots of reptiles and birds hiss, shriek, honk, or…[whatever geckos do.](https://youtu.be/EI67Uwp18dc) I think it’s pretty unlikely dinosaurs roared like in the movies. Birds vocalize using the [syrinx.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrinx_%28bird_anatomy%29) I don’t think there’s a consensus on when it evolved exactly. Some theropod groups probably had it, but who knows which. Soft tissues and organs don’t tend to fossilize. For all you know tyrannosaurs had giant throat sacs like frogs. According to computer models some sauropods could crack their tail like a whip. [This article](http://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/02/science/did-dinosaurs-break-the-sound-barrier.html?pagewanted=1) suggests it would sound like a cannon. Might be the loudest sound a dinosaur could make. Given that many dinosaurs lived in large herds you would think some of them would have loud calls that would carry a good distance. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2015, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-loud-is-the-roar-of-a-dinosaur/724533/9 "2015-07-08T11:03:05Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > How load IS the roar of a dinosaur? > > What alternate universe do you come from, OP? > [@Love\_Rhombus](#): > > One in which the call of Wildious Turkeysarus is louder than I’d like. :o By any reasonable cladistic reckoning wild turkeys (lowercase) and all other birds ARE dinosaurs ([xkcd: Birds and Dinosaurs](http://xkcd.com/1211/)). So the OP’s question makes sense at least that far, uppercase Wild Turkey notwithstanding. And as the esteemed \*\*Senegoid \*\*points out, some modern dinosaurs are pretty damn loud. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2015, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-loud-is-the-roar-of-a-dinosaur/724533/10 "2015-07-08T11:41:33Z")
Back around 1930, when Merian C, Cooper was making _King Kong_, he wrote to the experts at the American Museum of Natural History, asking them this very question. As Goldner and Turner relate, in _The Makig of King Kong_, he got back a long letter that translated to “they probably didn’t have any vocfal cords, and probably didn’t make any sound.” They ended up making the T. rex in Kong doing a sort of hissing sound, not a roar. I don’;t know what current thinking is on this\*, but I do know that virtually all dinosaurs, especially carnivores, roar in the movies. But that’s a visceral thing, like the “swoosh” of the starship Enterprise in space – something that big and mean, the audience feels, \*ought[/] to roar. Based on alligators, turtles, and lizards, you’d think that dinosaurs would hiss and make cannon-like thundering. Certainly the author of a certain Board Book would probably agree ( [Dinosaur Roars - Yahoo Image Search Results](https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrBT7nhC51VQhMASTdXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEzM2RmYXU2BGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMyBHZ0aWQDU01FNzAzXzEEc2VjA3Nj?p=Dinosaur+Roars&fr=yfp-t-252#id=4&iurl=http%3A%2F%2Famyfatek.files.wordpress.com%2F2011%2F12%2Fdinosaur-roar1.jpg&action=click) ) But maybe that avian link points to possible other sounds. \*Here’s a link to a 2009 _Smithsonian_ article on it: > **[Did Dinosaurs Roar?](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/did-dinosaurs-roar-48438337/?no-ist)** ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2015, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-loud-is-the-roar-of-a-dinosaur/724533/11 "2015-07-08T11:52:06Z")
If a dinosaur roars in the Jurassic and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2015, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-loud-is-the-roar-of-a-dinosaur/724533/12 "2015-07-08T12:17:30Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > If a dinosaur roars in the Jurassic and no one is around to hear it does it make a sound? _Moo!_ ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2015, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-loud-is-the-roar-of-a-dinosaur/724533/13 "2015-07-08T12:53:48Z")
I wouldn’t be surprised if we go back in our time machine and find that T-Rex sounds _exactly_ like this [distant relative](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJAIkSPK3DI). NSFW ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2015, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-loud-is-the-roar-of-a-dinosaur/724533/14 "2015-07-08T13:05:24Z")
…I mean how’d you like to be woken by a 40 foot tyrannosaur peeking his head into your tent and roaring, _“GET THE F_\*\* UP!”\* in an Australian accent, then start dubsteppin? That would be slightly surreal. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2015, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-loud-is-the-roar-of-a-dinosaur/724533/15 "2015-07-08T13:07:37Z")
Since all we have is speculation, I’d venture in addition to whatever vocalizations they did, that they could probably make infrasonic sounds, so they could make all sorts of noises that we’d never hear. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2015, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-loud-is-the-roar-of-a-dinosaur/724533/16 "2015-07-08T13:47:55Z")
Do we know what the ear structures of the dinosaurs was like? ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2015, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-loud-is-the-roar-of-a-dinosaur/724533/17 "2015-07-08T14:00:35Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Excellent points, **Colibri** , I should’ve figured that out myself. > > Back to **LR** ’s query: since a T-Rex is 10 times bigger than a croc\*, would it be 10 times louder? > > \*Total speculation Probably not; sound generation tends to increase by a logarithmic scale, _i.e.,_ 10 more decibels is twice as loud. This is why there are 20 violins in an orchestra, but it’s not 20 times as loud as one violin. Not sure what the effect would be due to the rate at which one was running away from the T-Rex. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2015, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-loud-is-the-roar-of-a-dinosaur/724533/18 "2015-07-08T19:53:29Z")
I have four dinosaurs in my back yard as we speak, and I can tell you they sound _exactly_ like cackling hens. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2015, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-loud-is-the-roar-of-a-dinosaur/724533/19 "2015-07-09T05:43:25Z")
> [@marshmallow](#): > > Are there any non-mammals that roar? Sure. [Alligators roar.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3rzkrm98J0) So do [crocs.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7aOBcD3M70) (I’m not sure what distinction you are making between roaring and bellowing. They’re pretty much synonymous.) Some birds also roar, notably the [Great Potoo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbvgIvxEIrg). So does the[cassowary.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dcQO6Zb8Eg) [Ostriches](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kYiJAwVbEs), [emus](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUrCz4t5UlY), and [Kakapo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dsasOfFUcA) parrots all boom. There is no reason to think that dinosaurs didn’t roar. They also probably made more diverse sounds, like those of birds. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2015, 9:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-loud-is-the-roar-of-a-dinosaur/724533/20 "2015-07-09T09:41:26Z")
Hell, if extant dinosaurs can make the noises of [chainsaws and car alarms](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjE0Kdfos4Y), they can make the noises of mammals roaring. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-loud-is-the-roar-of-a-dinosaur/724533.md?page=2)