Reconstruction of an extinct soundscape reveals ultrasonic communication in the Jurassic

Reconstruction of an extinct soundscape reveals ultrasonic communication in the Jurassic | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Biological Sciences - Article Reconstruction of an extinct soundscape reveals ultrasonic communication in the Jurassic Fernando Montealegre-Z, Jun-Jie Gu, Thorin Jonsson, Charlie Woodrow, and 8 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9034306/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract A salient feature of biodiverse habitats is the acoustic landscape, which reveals key animal interactions and their ecologies. Very little is known about the acoustic landscape of long-gone environments, such as the Jurassic forests. The sounds made by dinosaurs and other charismatic vertebrates are not definitively known because their vocal organs rarely preserve well in fossils1. Unlike tetrapod vocal cords, the sound-producing organs present in the sclerotised cuticle of some arthropods do fossilise well2-4. For example, the stridulatory structures (file, plectrum) can be observed and measured in the fossilised forewings of male katydids and allies. These fossils incorporate a fingerprint of the acoustic signals they generated4-7, offering a unique window into the soundscapes of the past. Call frequencies can be inferred from fossilised wings using phylogenetically informed predictions8, yet the reconstruction of wing vibrations and the songs’ temporal patterns from fossil material remains elusive. Integrating phylogenetics, biomechanics, numerical simulations, and an AI-based approach, 20 ensiferan fossils (representing nine species) from a single location (Jiulongshan Formation, Inner Mongolia, China) were studied to recreate the acoustic landscape of the Middle Jurassic. These early singing insects produced pure-tone calls, an adaptation to avoid localization by eavesdropping predators. These species also exhibited rich diversity in their calling song frequencies and call repertoires, facilitated by specialised file morphologies and variation in wing size. While most species communicated using low frequencies, one species likely broadcast ultrasounds (>20 kHz). These findings support the hypothesis that ultrasonic communication in insects was established long before the emergence of bats, which appeared as fossil records in the Eocene. Analysis of mammalian hearing thresholds through time unveils potential undocumented coevolutionary pressures and constraints exerted by eavesdropping predators, prior to the evolution of echolocating bats. The arms race between ensiferan singing and auditory capabilities of early mammals likely constituted one of the key selective pressures driving Jurassic insect song diversity and the evolution of both mammalian and insect hearing systems. Biological sciences/Evolution/Palaeontology Biological sciences/Biophysics/Computational biophysics Physical sciences/Mathematics and computing/Applied mathematics Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files SupplementaryInformation.pdf Supplementary Information Supplementarytables.pdf Supplementary tables ExtendedMaterials.pdf Extended data Figures 1-9, Extended data Tables 1-4 MoviesMov2.zip This compressed file containing 7 media files Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9034306","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Biological Sciences - Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":601324415,"identity":"974c2c9f-c0b7-4902-9517-57552c8697ba","order_by":0,"name":"Fernando 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Very little is known about the acoustic landscape of long-gone environments, such as the Jurassic forests. The sounds made by dinosaurs and other charismatic vertebrates are not definitively known because their vocal organs rarely preserve well in fossils1. Unlike tetrapod vocal cords, the sound-producing organs present in the sclerotised cuticle of some arthropods do fossilise well2-4. For example, the stridulatory structures (file, plectrum) can be observed and measured in the fossilised forewings of male katydids and allies. These fossils incorporate a fingerprint of the acoustic signals they generated4-7, offering a unique window into the soundscapes of the past. Call frequencies can be inferred from fossilised wings using phylogenetically informed predictions8, yet the reconstruction of wing vibrations and the songs’ temporal patterns from fossil material remains elusive. Integrating phylogenetics, biomechanics, numerical simulations, and an AI-based approach, 20 ensiferan fossils (representing nine species) from a single location (Jiulongshan Formation, Inner Mongolia, China) were studied to recreate the acoustic landscape of the Middle Jurassic. These early singing insects produced pure-tone calls, an adaptation to avoid localization by eavesdropping predators. These species also exhibited rich diversity in their calling song frequencies and call repertoires, facilitated by specialised file morphologies and variation in wing size. While most species communicated using low frequencies, one species likely broadcast ultrasounds (\u003e20 kHz). These findings support the hypothesis that ultrasonic communication in insects was established long before the emergence of bats, which appeared as fossil records in the Eocene. Analysis of mammalian hearing thresholds through time unveils potential undocumented coevolutionary pressures and constraints exerted by eavesdropping predators, prior to the evolution of echolocating bats. The arms race between ensiferan singing and auditory capabilities of early mammals likely constituted one of the key selective pressures driving Jurassic insect song diversity and the evolution of both mammalian and insect hearing systems.","manuscriptTitle":"Reconstruction of an extinct soundscape reveals ultrasonic communication in the Jurassic","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-03-06 02:42:26","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9034306/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"498982c2-37a4-4211-a5dc-fff7b5311eba","owner":[],"postedDate":"March 6th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":63995283,"name":"Biological sciences/Evolution/Palaeontology"},{"id":63995284,"name":"Biological sciences/Biophysics/Computational biophysics"},{"id":63995285,"name":"Physical sciences/Mathematics and computing/Applied mathematics"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-03-12T06:42:25+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-03-06 02:42:26","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-9034306","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-9034306","identity":"rs-9034306","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}