Photo/Illutration Junki Yoshida, curator at the Fukushima Museum, shows a reproduction of the Pinacosaurus fossil. (The Asahi Shimbun)

In a scene from the 1993 U.S. film “Jurassic Park,” a glass of water shakes as dinosaur footsteps keep getting closer and terror reaches its peak when a T-Rex emits a menacing roar--a sound that has left a lasting impression on me.

The sound was reportedly synthesized, painstakingly by the film’s sound effects team, from the vocalization of baby elephants, tigers and other animals. I remember accepting it as the “voice of dinosaurs” at the time.

Nobody has ever heard a real dinosaur, of course, but a research paper published recently in a British scientific journal raises our hopes of finding out what it could have sounded like.

According to the paper, an international team of researchers, including those from the Fukushima Museum and Hokkaido University, discovered a fossil of a dinosaur larynx bone--the first discovery of its kind in history.

Unearthed from a stratum dating back about 80 million years to the Cretaceous Period, the fossil was identified as that of the Pinacosaurus, an herbivore.

The larynx bone resembles that of present-day avian species. And from its shape and function similar to those of parrots and sparrows, the researchers point out the possibility that the Pinacosaurus communicated by vocalization.

And more interesting is their theory that this dinosaur used vocalization for wooing its potential mate or calling to its offspring, or when engaged in territorial fights.

This stirs my imagination. Was the beast capable of communication that was complex or sophisticated enough to enable exchanges with members of its own species?

Birds are said to be descended from dinosaurs. American psychologist Theodore Xenophon Barber (1927-2005) noted in his book “The Human Nature of Birds” that birds possess advanced communication skills, which enable them to utter diverse sounds to signal their feelings and actions and warn others against danger.

Animals can communicate unexpectedly well.

Why is it that even though we humans speak words and can express ourselves on social media, we often feel we are not being heard?

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 18

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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