Have you ever wondered what sounds dinosaurs may have listened to as they roamed the Jurassic planet? Well now we have an idea. A song played by a prehistoric cricket some 165 million years ago has been recreated by scientists from Bristol University. The work was made possible because of the discovery of an especially well preserved bushcricket fossil from the mid-Jurassic period found in North East China.

The modern day bush-cricket Photo Leviathan

The fossil’s microscopic wing features were clearly discernable – this meant its “stridulating” organs could be examined under an optical microscope. For cricket do not technically sing – they stridulate, which is to say that they rub together certain body parts, notably the ribbed edges of their wings.

Modern-day bushcrickets produce mating calls by rubbing a row of teeth on one wing against a plectrum on the other wing.

The Jurassic ancestor of the modern cricket has been named Archabolis musicus.

Wing structures compared

Paleontologists proceeded to compare the wing structures of the fossil to contemporary cricket wings, and concluded that the insect must have sang songs of pure single frequencies.

Professor Daniel Robert of the University of Bristol’s School of Biological Sciences said: ‘This discovery indicates that pure tone communication was already exploited by animals in the middle Jurassic some 165 million years ago.

‘For Archaboilus, as for living bushcricket species, singing constitutes a key component of mate attraction.

‘Singing loud and clear advertises the presence, location and quality of the singer, a message that females choose to respond to – or not.

‘Using a single tone, the male’s call carries further and better, and therefore is likely to serenade more females.

‘However, it also makes the male more conspicuous to predators if they have also evolved ears to eavesdrop on these mating calls.’

The research has been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The song can be heard in video available from Bristol University.

biology, crickets, paleontology, Science Science & Technology