The sounds of the past

From Aeon: "In late 2016, a team of palaeontologists confirmed they had discovered the oldest known fossil of a bird's voice box, known as a syrinx. It was found in the remains of an extinct Antarctic bird named Vegavis, which died at least 66 million years ago and lived alongside the dinosaurs. The fact that the syrinx was not more widespread at the time suggests that the bird's voice box arrived relatively late in the evolutionary game, some time after flight, the development of continuous breathing and the use of colourful feathers for sexual display. … Scientists over the past two decades have come to a much richer understanding of the most elusive and atmospheric feature of the primordial world: its soundscape."