Scientists in northern China have uncovered a new dinosaur species named Pulaosaurus Qinglong, that they believe might chirp like a bird. It lived around 160 million years ago during the Middle to Late Jurassic, in what’s now Hebei province. This region belongs to the rich Yanliao Biota, known for preserving a wide variety of plants, insects, amphibians, and small dinosaurs.
This is the first confirmed neornithischian dinosaur discovered in the Yanliao Biota. Previously, scientists had only found only small meat-eating dinosaurs (theropods) there.
The Name honours Chinese Mythology and its vocal sounds
The genus name Pulaosaurus is inspired by the mythical Chinese creature Pulao, known for its loud calls. This is fitting, since this dinosaur may have produced bird-like vocalizations.
The species name Qinglong honors Qinglong County, Hebei Province, where scientists found this fossil.
What the Fossil Reveals
The fossil is almost a complete skeleton, including skull parts and soft tissue marks. It even preserves rare bones like the larynx (voice box), a feature almost never found in non-avian dinosaurs.
The fossil preserved cololites, i.e. gut contents, possibly including plant seeds. This rare find provides a direct hint at the dinosaur’s diet and digestive biology. The study, however, did not go into the depths of the gut content.
What the Bird-like Larynx Tells us
We know of only one other non-avian dinosaur, an armored species called Pinacosaurus, which shares this rare preservation. The presence of a bony larynx suggests Pulaosaurus may have made bird-like sounds, such as chirps, not roars, as one tends to associate with dinosaurs.
The fossil shows the presence of a bony larynx similar in structure to those of modern birds. Pulaosaurus could possibly modulate sound, which would make its vocal abilities more sophisticated than previously thought for non-avian dinosaurs.
“P. qinglong represents the second known dinosaur to preserve ossified laryngeal elements, thus suggesting that a bird-like vocalization evolved early in non-avian dinosaur evolution.”, said the scientists in their paper published in Peerj.
Filling Gaps in Dinosaur Evolution
Pulaosaurus Qinglong belongs to the group Neornithischia, a branch of herbivorous dinosaurs. Before this discovery, their early evolutionary records in this region were thin. This find fills both a temporal gap (Middle to Late Jurassic) and a geographic gap in our understanding of how these dinosaurs spread across China.