Fossil evidence of the avian vocal organ from the Mesozoic

@article{Clarke2016FossilEO,
  title={Fossil evidence of the avian vocal organ from the Mesozoic},
  author={Julia A. Clarke and Sankar Chatterjee and Zhiheng Li and Tobias Riede and Federico L. Agnolin and Franz Goller and Marcelo P. Isasi and Daniel R. Martinioni and Francisco J. Mussel and Fernando Emilio Novas},
  journal={Nature},
  year={2016},
  volume={538},
  pages={502-505}
}
From complex songs to simple honks, birds produce sounds using a unique vocal organ called the syrinx. Located close to the heart at the tracheobronchial junction, vocal folds or membranes attached to modified mineralized rings vibrate to produce sound. Syringeal components were not thought to commonly enter the fossil record, and the few reported fossilized parts of the syrinx are geologically young (from the Pleistocene and Holocene (approximately 2.5 million years ago to the present)). The… Expand
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