Extremely cool new dinosaur: Pulaosaurus qinglong
This absolutely gorgeous fossil ornithischian from the mid-to-late Jurassic of China was just described a couple days ago! And beyond just being a beautiful looking specimen, this fossil includes fossilised elements of the larynx!!!
Specifically it had arytenoids, which are parts of the larynx made of cartilage in us mammals but in birds and now apparently ornithischian dinosaurs they were ossified (turned to bone). The authors described them as looking similar to modern birds', suggesting that Pulaosaurus might have been able to make bird-like vocalisations!
It's particularly exciting because it's a second point of data after laryngeal structures were found in the ankylosaur Pinacosaurus a couple years ago. So it's not just ankylosaurs doing some weird unique thing, but a structure that might have been shared by at least all ornithischians!
As far as I'm aware nobody has attempted to figure out what the actual noises could have been, and I'm guessing it's not possible with the amount of material we have. But it does massively expand the range of sounds that we know could have been possible for them, which is exciting enough!!
