Listening to insects from 100 mln years ago

Shanghai (CNS) -- Paleontologist Ren Dong led his team in staging a successful demonstration of the sounds a cricket would have made in the Jurassic Age.

Ren addressed the Shanghai Science Communication Forum at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum on Saturday about their discovery, in cooperation with a British team, of a complete Jurassic Age insect fossil in China.

They managed to bring the ancient sound to life by studying the wings, which crickets usually use to produce their characteristic chirping, and comparing them with contemporary insects.

Ren also briefed the audience on the great impact the study had when its results were published in the proceedings of the American Academy of Sciences.

International media gave it a beautiful name: the 'most ancient serenade.'

The finding, Ren pointed out, is helpful in completing our picture of the entire ancient ecological system and food chain.