Re: RE:dinosaur skull bring a cry from the past

["King, Norm" <nking.ucs@smtp.usi.edu>]

It was David Weishampel who made the PVC pipe _Parasaurolophus_ 
resonating chamber, in the PBS video "The Great Dinosaur Hunt."  He could 
blow into a special mouthpiece (which _Para_ didn't have!) to produce a 
low-pitched tone. He speculated that such vocalization could have been 
used to warn other _Para's_ of a marauding _T. rex_, and the individual 
sounding the alarm would not be located easily by the _T. rex_ because 
the source of low-pitched tones is more difficult to locate than the 
source of high-pitched tones.  Also, low-pitched tones travel farther 
than high-pitched tones.  I don't think the PVC apparatus was a close 
match to the anatomy of _Para_, but the principle may be valid.  

Elephants use low-pitched tones to locate each other during mating 
season.  The tones they produce for this purpose are below the range of 
human hearing. (Sorry, I don't have references for that information--call 
your local zoo!)  If they can locate each other with such low-pitched 
tones, I don't see why a _T. rex_ couldn't locate a _Para_ making similar 
sounds.


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Norman R. King                                       tel:  (812) 464-1794
Department of Geosciences                            fax:  (812) 464-1960
University of Southern Indiana
8600 University Blvd.
Evansville, IN 47712                      e-mail:  nking.ucs@smtp.usi.edu