--- ---  # Dinosaurs May Have Cooed Instead of Roared, Scientists Find by [Tara John](https://time.com/author/tara-john/) ## Tara John Jul 12, 2016 3:00 PM UTC  A man reacts to the Eden Project's life-size juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex that has been brought as a preview to the nearby attraction's "Dinosaur Uprising" opening this summer on June 9, 2016 near Wadebridge, England. A man reacts to the Eden Project's life-size juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex that has been brought as a preview to the nearby attraction's "Dinosaur Uprising" opening this summer on June 9, 2016 near Wadebridge, England.Matt Cardy—Getty Images by [Tara John](https://time.com/author/tara-john/) ## Tara John Jul 12, 2016 3:00 PM UTC Not only did some dinosaurs [have feathers](http://time.com/3961931/science-dinosaur-velociraptor-feather/), but according to new research the prehistoric creatures may have emitted coos or mumbles instead of mammalian roars. After a comprehensive review of vocal data from bird and crocodile species, scientists from universities in Arizona, Texas, Utah and Canada found that dinosaur sounds may be what they call a “closed-mouth vocalization.” According to the [research published in _Evolution_](http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/evo.12988/abstract), a similar example would be the coos of a dove, in which sounds are emitted through the skin and neck area while the beak is kept closed. “Looking at the distribution of closed-mouth vocalization in birds that are alive today could tell us how dinosaurs vocalized,” Chad Eliason from The University of Texas Jackson School of Geosciences and the study’s co-author said in a [statement](https://news.utexas.edu/2016/07/11/dinosaurs-may-have-cooed-like-doves). “Our results show that closed-mouth vocalization has evolved at least 16 times in archosaurs, a group that includes birds, dinosaurs and crocodiles. Interestingly, only animals with a relatively large body size (about the size of a dove or larger) use closed-mouth vocalization behavior.” Dinosaurs May Have Cooed Instead of Roared, Scientists Find ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4402698/dinosaurs-coo-pigeon-roar/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4402698/dinosaurs-coo-pigeon-roar/"},"headline":"Dinosaurs May Have Cooed Instead of Roared, Scientists Find","datePublished":"2016-07-12T15:00:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:11:49.919Z","description":"It's down to a little thing called closed-mouth vocalization","url":"https://time.com/4402698/dinosaurs-coo-pigeon-roar/","keywords":["Paleontology"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8071b3afe89a3d81/69889b92656a3fc5debcc3fa/dinosaur-roar-coo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tara John","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tara-john/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8071b3afe89a3d81/69889b92656a3fc5debcc3fa/dinosaur-roar-coo.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A man reacts to the Eden Project's life-size juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex that has been brought as a preview to the nearby attraction's \"Dinosaur Uprising\" opening this summer on June 9, 2016 near Wadebridge, England.","caption":"A man reacts to the Eden Project's life-size juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex that has been brought as a preview to the nearby attraction's \"Dinosaur Uprising\" opening this summer on June 9, 2016 near Wadebridge, England.","creditText":"Matt Cardy—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/paleontology/","name":"Paleontology"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4402698/dinosaurs-coo-pigeon-roar/","name":"Dinosaurs May Have Cooed Instead of Roared, Scientists Find"}}]}] ```