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Smithsonian Magazine · September 7, 2026

Scientists Recreated the Long-Lost Chirps of Jurassic Insects. Listen to the Simulated Soundscape of 165 Million Years Ago

HistoryBiologyMusic
THE AI ANGLE
Predicting prehistoric call patterns from fossilized wing shapes

By analyzing 165-million-year-old fossilized wings and utilizing artificial intelligence, researchers reconstructed the sounds of Jurassic katydid relatives, revealing that these insects produced musical, pure-tone chirps through stridulation. Crucially, the discovery of an ultrasonic call dating to millions of years before the appearance of bats challenges the long-standing biological theory that bat predation drove the evolution of high-frequency insect communication. For instructors across biology, environmental history, and music, this work provides a framework for reconstructing ancient acoustic environments using anatomical mechanics.

THE TEACHING ANGLE
Faculty can examine how mechanical sound production preserved in the fossil record can revise evolutionary timelines and allow us to historicize prehistoric soundscapes.

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