This dinosaur probably tweeted more than it roared

The anatomy of a Chinese fossil offers a hint that birdsong may be as old as dinosaurs

- ASHER ELBEIN

SINCE THE 1930S, dinosaurs have rumbled, snarled and roared on film. But the fossilized inspirations for these cinematic characters have preserved little evidence for any such dramatic voices.

In a paper published last week in the journal PeerJ, researchers announced the discovery of a fossilized herbivorous dinosaur from China preserving a surprisingly birdlike throat. The two-foot-long dinosaur, which the researchers named Pulaosaurus, was discovered in 163-million-year-old rocks in northeastern China, said Xing Xu, a paleontologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and an author of the paper.

The Jurassic period formation that produced Pulaosaurus is also the source of other dinosaur discoveries. Unlike those animals,