Journey · 4 stops
From crest to call
A fossil crest, a reconstructed voice, and the living birds that carry the family on. Shows how a T1 specimen becomes a T4 reconstruction.
Play this journey on the globe
Reviewed by the Chronos Terra content advisor, September 2026 (illustrative).
Stop 1 · 78 to 72 Ma
The specimen
Seventy-five million years ago this crested hadrosaur lived on a river plain that is now southern Alberta. The globe shows the continents as they were. The site is shown as a region because the badlands are looted.
Parasaurolophus walkeri holotype, ROM 768
The type specimen of the crested hadrosaur, a near-complete skeleton from the Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta.
76.5 to 74 MaDinosaur Park Formation, southern Alberta, Canada
Stop 2 · 78 to 72 Ma
The reconstructed voice
The crest is a looping tube. Modelled as a resonator it favours low frequencies. Press play to hear the model, then read why it is labelled T4 and what it cannot tell you.
Parasaurolophus crest resonance, reconstructed call
A modelled low-frequency call derived from the crest's internal airways. A reconstruction, not a recording.
76.5 to 74 MaDinosaur Park Formation, southern Alberta, Canada
0:00 / 0:03EditedSynthesised low resonant tone representing the modelled crest frequencies. Placeholder audio.
This stop shows a T4 record. On the globe, the tier switch is turned on for this stop only.
Stop 3 · 2015 to 2026
The living relatives
Jump forward to the present. Birds are the living dinosaurs. A capercaillie displaying at dawn in a Scottish pinewood is the closest this archive comes to hearing that lineage today.
Capercaillie display call, Cairngorms
Male display call recorded at a spring lek in a Scottish pinewood. Location generalised to protect the lek.
2019Cairngorms region, Scotland
0:00 / 0:03DenoisedClicking phrases rising to a cork-pop, then a gurgle. Placeholder audio.
Stop 4 · 1830 to 1900
The bird as emblem
Reintroduced from Sweden in 1837, the capercaillie was soon a Highland emblem in print. The link between engraving and recording is T2, a documented depiction.
Capercaillie in a Victorian sporting engraving
A nineteenth-century engraving of a displaying capercaillie, made soon after the bird's reintroduction.
1860 to 1880Scottish Highlands