Archive · 21 Sep 2026
Scientists Reconstruct Chirps Of Jurassic Forest Insect Soundscape
Scientists wanted to know what forests sounded like 165 million years ago.
They studied fossil wings from ancient relatives of crickets and katydids.
These insects had special wing parts that could rub together and make sounds.
Researchers compared them with living insects and used computers to recreate their calls.
They reconstructed nine different chirps, trills and clicks.
One insect made a sound too high for humans to hear.
Bats did not yet exist during the Jurassic period.
The scientists suggest the insects may have used high sounds to avoid predators or keep their messages separate from other insects.
The result is a scientific estimate, not a recording from the actual ancient forest.
Researchers recreated nine calls from fossilised Jurassic cricket and katydid ancestors.
The insects made sounds by rubbing ridged and scraping structures on their wings together.
Computer modelling combined fossil-wing data with measurements from living relatives.
One species, Sigmaboilus peregrinus, produced a call above 20 kilohertz, beyond human hearing.
The findings challenge the idea that bats were the main reason insects evolved ultrasonic communication.
- Who
- Jun-Jie Gu and colleagues, with analysis discussed by Rex Cocroft, studied nine Jurassic cricket and katydid ancestors.
- What
- Researchers reconstructed nine likely insect calls from fossilised wings using bioacoustic measurements, computer modelling and machine learning.
- When
- The reconstructed soundscape dates to about 165 million years ago, during the Jurassic period; the study was published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
- Where
- The fossil specimens were found in Inner Mongolia, China.
- Why
- The researchers sought evidence-based insight into the sounds of ancient forests and possible reasons Jurassic insects developed ultrasonic communication.
Alternative ultrasonic explanations
Earlier bat-centered explanation
Why Jurassic insects may have used ultrasonic calls
Alternative ultrasonic explanations
Jun-Jie Gu and colleagues argue that insects could have evolved ultrasonic communication to create separate communication channels or avoid early mammals and other predators.
Earlier bat-centered explanation
A long-held view suggested that insects developed ultrasonic communication mainly to evade bats, but bats appeared roughly 100 million years after the Jurassic period ended.
Assessment of the predator hypothesis
Alternative ultrasonic explanations
Rex Cocroft said predation is a major force in the evolution of communication and called the researchers’ explanation plausible.
Earlier bat-centered explanation
The study challenges treating bats as the primary driver because they did not yet exist when these Jurassic insects lived.
- Estimated age
- About 165 million years
- Fossil material
- 20 specimens representing nine species of cricket and katydid ancestors
- Sound-production method
- Rubbing a scraping structure on one wing against comblike ridges on the other
- Reconstructed calls
- Nine distinct calls
- Ultrasonic species
- Sigmaboilus peregrinus
- Publication
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Research institution
- Sichuan Agricultural University