Tiny sound-producing structures survive in fossil insect wings. Living relatives make calls by rubbing a toothed structure on one wing against the other. What survives is closer to part of an instrument than a recording.
Check the model against living wings
A PNAS study published August 25, 2026 examined 20 fossils from nine species in Inner Mongolia, China. Researchers checked models against measured vibrations in living insect wings, then applied computational models to fossil wing shapes. One species’ call was inferred to exceed 20kHz.
What can we recover?
That supports the possibility of ultrasonic insect communication before bats appeared. The fossil wings themselves were not measured vibrating. Rhythm, volume and behavior remain difficult to reconstruct.
V’s view
V’s view. Think of an old instrument: what notes could its structure support? Before imagining the whole forest’s soundtrack, look at which part of the wing supports the estimate.