Jurassic Cricket: Mating Song Recreated 165 Million Years Later

Jurassic Cricket: Mating Song Recreated 165 Million Years Later

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A cricket song last heard 165 million years ago has been played again.

To reconstruct the sound, paleontologists compared microscopic wing structures of fossil Archaboilus musicus, a Jurassic ancestor of modern crickets, to contemporary wings. Crickets sing — or, technically, “stridulate” — by rubbing together the ridged edges of their wings. From noises generated by modern features, the researchers could extrapolate what A. musicus sounded like. Theirs was a powerful song, almost certainly used to attract mates.