Birds’ honks filled Late Cretaceous air

Sounds inferred from oldest preserved avian voice box

ancient bird diagram

ANCIENT VOICE BOX  A ducklike bird that lived some 68 million to 66 million years ago left behind fossilized remains of a voice box, or syrinx, on an island off the coast of Antarctica.

Nicolle Fuller/Sayo Art for UT Austin

Some ancient birds may have sounded like honking ducks.