Paleontological Sonification: Letting Music Bring Fossils to Your Ears
A. A. Ekdale, Alan C. Tripp May 2005 Journal of Geoscience Education v53 n3 p271
This paper from the Journal of Geoscience Education discusses sonification, the process of translating any type of data into sound. In paleontology, it is possible to render various aspects of fossil shapes, such as cephalopod suture patterns or brachiopod commissure lines, as a series of musical tones that can be recognized easily by the human ear. Paleontological applications of sonification might enable auditory perception of morphologic patterns in fossils that may or may not be visually apparent. Several simple classroom activities are featured that show positive student response.
