Researchers Reconstruct Jurassic Insect Calls Using Lasers and AI - Memesita
Researchers Reconstruct Jurassic Insect Calls Using Lasers and AI - Memesita
摘要: Researchers Reconstruct Jurassic Insect Calls Using Lasers and AI
September 3, 2026
Science Editor — Dr. Naomi Korr
Researchers have combined f
正文
Researchers Reconstruct Jurassic Insect Calls Using Lasers and AI
September 3, 2026
Science Editor — Dr. Naomi Korr
Researchers have combined fossilized wings, laser measurements, and machine learning to reconstruct the ultrasonic calls of insects that lived 165 million years ago. The discovery reveals a complex prehistoric soundscape in China’s Jiulongshan Formation.
Reconstructing the Jurassic Soundscape With Lasers and AI
While sound itself does not fossilize, scientists can still recover the physical structures responsible for producing it
after analyzing fossils
. Soft tissues and vocal organs rarely survive the test of time, but ancient insects left behind durable clues. Researchers examined the sclerotized cuticle of fossilized arthropods, along with stridulatory files and plectra preserved in wings.
Stridulatory files perform stridulation, the physical act of producing sound by rubbing two body parts together, much like modern crickets. An international team of paleoentomologists carried out a detailed investigation of 24 fossil katydids found in China alongside an additional analysis of 87 fossils from China, South Africa, and Kyrgyzstan dating from the Middle Triassic to the Middle Jurassic, spanning 150 to 240 million years ago.
To turn static rock into dynamic audio, experts built a two-dimensional digital model of each fossil wing and ran physical simulations to determine its natural frequency
by striking its own fossilized wing
, creating a vibration directly from the specimen. Machine-learning models analyzed wing shapes and helped predict possible call patterns, combining those predictions with laser measurements and computer simulations of wing vibrations
to reconstruct what the sound was most likely to have been
.
Katydid Evolution and Ancient Ultrasonic Calls
The breakthrough provides a rare window into the acoustic ecology of the Mesozoic Era.
Katydids are the earliest known animals to evolve complex communication using sound