Re: OT: Non-Human Phonology

On Tue, 16 May 2006 20:06:47 +0200, Steven Williams <feurieaux@...>
wrote:

>Have you ever read Stephen Baxter's "Evolution"? In
>one of the chapters, Baxter goes on to detail a small
>civilization of tool- and language-using Jurassic
>predators (I think they evolved from ornitholestes, a
>small bipedal predator with very well-developed hands,
>supposed by many scientists to be used to seize
>struggling prey).
No, I haven't read it, but now I'll be sure to look into it!  Thanks!

>Why beaks? Birds evolved beaks because of weight
>restrictions for flight (teeth and their associated
>support structures are fairly heavy); unless your
>anthroposaurs are meant to fly, I'd imagine teeth to
>be a greater advantage than disadvantage.
There are at least several examples of wingless dinosaurs who nevertheless
had beaks.  So it's not only used to help lighten the body for flight.

>Feathers are pretty probable, if your anthroposaurs
>evolved from small carnivores (dromaeosaurs,
>ornithomimids and their ilk). We're pretty sure these
>days that the littler dinosaurs were befeathered (we
>have fossil evidence for some recently-discovered
>species), and even possibly the larger ones (T. rex
>with plumage is too delicious an idea to pass up).
Yes, that's true.  It seems to correlate with dinosaurs being endothermic
(warm-blooded).

>Agreed. It's just too 'ugly' to imagine a Troodon
>grunting and roaring; it's 'feels' much more accurate
>to imagine them chirping and rasping. This is just me
>talking from an aesthetic point of view, of course; I
>don't know the first thing about saurian
>communication.
Heh, they won't evolve from troodontids, though.  Right now I'm thinking
they'd be more closely related to the oviraptors, but a parallel lineage
without any close descendants (much like we're the only living members of
the genus Homo today).

>The glottis, pharynx and epiglottis are some untapped
>possibilities (in humans, at least; many of our
>languages don't even bother with that region at all),
>though I'm not sure if those structures are analogous
>to similar avian structures (avian anatomy is not one
>of my strong suits).
As Hermann pointed out, birds actually have a different sound-producing
organ altogether.  It's called the syrinx and it lies at the *bottom* of
the trachea, instead of at the top as with the human larynx.  Still, it's
a pretty neat example of convergent evolution. :)

- Rob

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