paleontological sonification: letting music bring … supposedly inserted thematic elements ... also...

ABSTRACT

Sonification is the process of translating any type of datainto sound. In paleontology, it is possible to rendervarious aspects of fossil shapes, such as cephalopodsuture patterns or brachiopod commissure lines, as aseries of musical tones that can be recognized easily bythe human ear. Paleontological applications ofsonification might enable auditory perception ofmorphologic patterns in fossils that may or may not bevisually apparent. Some simple classroomdemonstrations can help students understand thepotential of using sound to identify different types offossils with their eyes closed (i.e., using their ears alone).

INTRODUCTION

In teaching descriptive aspects of paleontology touniversity students, it is possible to render variousaspects of fossil shapes as a series of musical tones thatcan be recognized easily by the human ear.Paleontological applications of sonification (therepresentation of any type of data via sound) can enableauditory perception of morphologic patterns in fossilsthat may or may not be visually apparent. This is a novelapproach to supplement the traditional hands-onlaboratory experiences with non-traditional ears-onexperiences to enhance students' perceptions ofimportant shape information in paleontology.

Simple classroom demonstrations and hands-on labexercises can help students understand the potential ofusing sound to identify different types of fossils withtheir eyes closed - that is, using their ears alone. Somepromising examples from the fossil record includesonified septal sutures of cephalopods, facial sutures oftrilobites, commissures of brachiopods, hinge dentitionof pelecypods, coiling patterns of gastropods, andtrackways of dinosaurs.

Paleontologists tend to be visually oriented. In fact, itmight be said that paleontologists are among the mostprecise observers of details in natural objects, becausetaxonomically and/or evolutionarily significant patternsin fossil shapes almost always are detected by sight. Butwe humans have five senses that might be employed inscientific interpretation (Pestrong, 2000; Rosenberg,2000), so there is no justification for limiting ourperception of fossils to just one of those senses. In fact,the sense of touch alone has proven to be extremelyeffective for perceiving crucial details of fossil shapes(Vermeij, 1996).

Sonification might enable auditory perception ofmorphologic patterns in fossils that may or may not bevisually apparent. Sonification is not a mysterious oreven difficult process - anyone who has sung a song outof a songbook or played a tune on an instrument from apiece of sheet music has sonified (translated the visual

code of musical notes printed in black and white on apage into sound).

Human hearing is an amazingly acute sense(Helmholtz, 1954; Shuter, 1968; Serafine, 1988; Bregman,1990). We respond immediately and involuntarily tofamiliar, simple sound signals, such as the ring of atelephone or the honk of an automobile horn. We canidentify individual humans solely by their unique voicequalities, we can discriminate their moods andintentions largely by the cadence and tone of their voices,and we often can determine where they grew up merelyby the particular accent and dialect they speak.

We discriminate characteristic sounds in nature with ease. Even a preschooler can distinguish a cat from a dogpurely by the sound it makes. It takes no sophisticationfor us to distinguish a seagull from an owl by itscharacteristic bird call. Many animals, such as apes,wolves and whales, communicate with one another intheir family groups by means of particular sound signals.In fact, individual whales in a pod apparently recognizeeach other by their own unique songs, and some kinds ofapes apparently recognize individual family membersby their own distinctive vocal characteristics.

VISUAL IMAGES DERIVED FROM SOUNDS

Evocative sounds can generate vivid images in ourmind's eye. For several centuries, natural sounds havebeen incorporated into art. Some composers haveattempted to mimic animal sounds using musicalinstruments. Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov's "Flight of theBumblebee" portrays the incessant buzzing of a peskyflying insect. Gioachino Rossini's "Thieving MagpieOverture" mimics the gurgling warbles of a vociferousmagpie. Wolfgang Mozart is said to have incorporatedsong styles from his pet starling in his whimsicalchamber piece, known as "A Musical Joke". Ludwig vanBeethoven supposedly inserted thematic elements of ablackbird's song in the opening portions of his "ViolinConcerto in D".

Other composers have offered more impressionisticdepictions of nature in their musical compositions.Antonio Vivaldi offered rich impressions of the seasonsof the year in his violin concertos, the "Four Seasons".Gioachino Rossini penned a compelling impression of aviolent storm in the "William Tell Overture". BedrichSmetana depicted the flowing of a mighty river in "TheMoldau". Ferde Grofe's famous "Grand Canyon Suite"provides a vivid musical description of the incomparablegeologic wonderland of the Grand Canyon.

Some attempts have been made to sonify rawscientific data in a way that is pleasing to the human ear.Mary Anne Clark, a molecular biologist, and John Dunn,a composer, have collaborated to sonify DNA sequencesand amino acid sequences in proteins, and the results areboth euphonious and informative (Dunn and Clark,1999). Pitch is determined by the various types of aminoacids, and the instrumentation is determined by thevarious folding patterns of the proteins. In their audio

Ekdale and Tripp - Paleontological Sonification 271

Paleontological Sonification: Letting Music Bring Fossils to YourEars

A. A. Ekdale Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, 135 South 1460East – Room 719 WBB, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0111, [email protected]

Alan C. Tripp Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, 135 South 1460East – Room 719 WBB, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0111, [email protected]

compact disc, "Life Music" (Dunn and Clark, 1998), someof the proteins they have sonified include beta-globulin,calmodulin, lysosome C, spidrion and collagen. JohnDunn sonified DNA data from the NIH GenBank,including genetic signatures of a slime mold, a starfish, avampire bat and a human sex hormone (Dunn, 1992). Healso has sonified DNA sequences in the HIV virus of anAIDS patient (Dunn, 1995).

Similarly, Aurora Sanchez-Sousa, a microbiologist,and Richard Krull, a composer, teamed up to sonifymolecular data from fungi. Some of their results havebeen performed on ordinary stringed instruments andflute, and the sounds of their fungal music have beenlikened to "Byzantine-Gregorian chants" (Holden, 2002).Mamoru Fujieda (1997) has produced some veryinteresting compositions based on sonification of themicroelectrical properties of plant leaves, and theseresults have been performed on both Japanesetraditional instruments (koto, sho and hitsu) andEuropean baroque instruments (harpsichord and violada gamba).

Marty Quinn, a composer and percussionist, hascollaborated with the Experimental Space Plasma Groupat the University of New Hampshire in order to sonifysolar wind data from exploratory spacecraft, and he hasused those sonifications to produce two compositions,entitled "Solar Songs" and "Rock Around the BowShock". In addition, Quinn has collaborated with theClimate Change Research Center at the University ofNew Hampshire to compose "The Climate Symphony",which sonifies ice core data from Greenland andexpresses patterns of climatic change over the past110,000 years. Quinn also has collaborated withseismologists at the University of New Mexico to create"The Seismic Sonata", which is a sonified rendering of theseismic signals recorded from the magnitude 6.7earthquake that struck Northridge, California, inJanuary, 1994. (For information about performances ofQuinn's music, readers may consult the web site at:http://www-ssg.sr.unh.edu/index.html?tof/Outreach/music.html/)

In sonic data from earthquakes, unique seismicsignatures of particular earthquakes can be detected.Frank Scherbaum, a seismologist, collaborated withWolfgang Loos, a composer, to produce "Inner Earth", anaudio compact disc of five different earthquakes, eachwith a unique musical character (Loos and Scherbaum,1999). Surprisingly perhaps, the sounds are not overlyrepetitious and monotonous, but rather they areengagingly melodious.

Rossetti and Montanari (2001) sonified a variety ofgeologic data (e.g., records of calcium carbonate content,metallic ion concentrations, helium isotopes, magneticsusceptibility, rock color, etc.) from stratigraphic sectionsin the Italian Apennines to produce a group ofeuphonious compositions, known collectively as "Ballacon la Terra" ("Dances with the Earth"). Montanari et al.(2002) continued this line of work by sonifying a similararray of geologic data (e.g., records of carbon and oxygenisotopes, clay content, lamina thickness, electricalconductivity, etc.) from cave deposits near Frasassi in thenorthern Apennines of Italy to produce another group ofshort compositions, which they call "Drops of Time".

ANALYTICAL AND INTERPRETATIVEAPPLICATIONS OF SOUND

The links between music and science have beennoticed and discussed for millennia, going back at least

as far as Pythagoras (6th Century B.C.), who discoveredand described the mathematical basis of musicalharmony in terms of the ratios of vibration frequencies(Meyer-Baer, 1970; Kassler, 2001). Pythagorasrecognized the existence of three distinctly differentforms of music - music played on man-madeinstruments, music generated by the resonance of thehuman body and soul, and music created by the vastcosmos itself (James, 1993).

In the late 16th and early 17th Centuries, JohannesKepler noted the direct correspondence of musicalfrequency ratios with the ratios of angular velocities ofplanets in our solar system, and he demonstrated that thedynamics of celestial bodies are directly congruent withthe laws of musical harmony (Koestler, 1960; Armitage,1966). Kepler calculated the relative velocities of theplanets in their orbits around the Sun, and he transposedthose data into "basic melodies for each planet, theearth's notes being simply 'mi, fa, mi' repeated over andover" (Murchie, 1967, p. 74).

Because our sense of hearing has such a greatpotential for precise discrimination of sound patterns,the diagnostic possibilities of auditory perception arefar-reaching. By listening to the telltale sounds in a car(e.g., chirp, click, ping, squeal, etc.), an astute carmechanic can diagnose why it is not running smoothly.By listening to a patient's heart with a stethoscope, anexperienced cardiologist can accurately diagnose seriousmedical problems.

Interpretive uses of sound have been employed quitewidely in geophysics. Side-scanning sonar, for example,has become a routine exploration tool in marinegeophysical prospecting. In acoustic well logs, sonicpatterns of characteristic sedimentary fabrics may berecognized and interpreted (Bockelie et al., 1998).Continuous high-resolution imaging of rock fabrics inthe borehole wall can be achieved by means ofmicroconductivity array and acoustic imagingtechniques. In electric well logs, downhole resistivitydata can be sonified easily. Examples of such data fromODP (Ocean Drilling Program) drill sites provideauditory evidence of Milankovich cyclicity ofpaleoclimates (Tripp et al., 2001; Tripp and Ekdale, 2003).

INTERPRETIVE POTENTIAL OF SOUND INPALEONTOLOGY

If auto mechanics, heart surgeons and geophysicists canuse their ears (as well as their eyes) to good advantage inscientific interpretation, then there is no apparent reasonwhy paleontologists cannot do the same. Sonification ofmorphologic data derived from fossils is certainlypossible, and eventually it may even be meaningful, butthe first step is to orient the discriminating ear - and mind- to hearing fossil shapes.

Paleontological sonification involves the depictionof fossil shapes with sounds (Ekdale, 2002, 2003, 2004).Sonified shape data may be played as musical notes onvirtually any kind of musical instrument, such as atrombone, violin, piano, synthesizer, computer or eventhe human voice. The simplest methodology is quitestraightforward. The item to be sonified (e.g., anammonoid suture pattern) is displayed as atwo-dimensional image. The vertical (y) axis denotesmusical pitch, and the horizontal (x) axis indicatesplaying time. The image is "played" from left to right.

Suture patterns of ammonoid cephalopods readilylend themselves to sonification. An ammonoid suture isthe line of intersection between the edge of a folded

272 Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 53, n. 3, May, 2005, p. 271-280

septum (internal chamber wall) with the outer wall of thecephalopod shell. The sutures can be represented aswiggly lines in two dimensions (plotted in x-y space). Asexemplified in virtually any invertebrate paleontologytextbook, the various groups of ammonoids possesshighly characteristic suture patterns, which haveimportant taxonomic significance for identifyingammonoid taxa from subclass down to species level.

Without any prior listening experience, almostanyone should be able to differentiate between thesounds of the most common categories of ammonoidsuture patterns, such as goniatitic, ceratitic andammonitic sutures. For example, a typical goniatiticsuture with smooth lobes and saddles (Figure 1, top) willrender a simple melody line that rises and falls smoothlyas the melody flows along. In contrast, a ceratitic suturewith secondary crenulations in the lobes (Figure 1,middle) will yield a melody line that rises and falls withsmooth slurs in the high parts and small trills in the lowparts. An ammonitic suture with complexly folded lobesand saddles (Figure 1, bottom) will produce a much morecomplex melody line that is embellished like a flashy

cadenza as it flies up and down through the high and lowregisters.

Similarly, the winding, scribbling or meanderingpatterns of various locomotion trails, which arepreserved as trace fossils, can be sonified easily. Theregular zigzags of the trace fossil Cochlichnus, a crawlingtrail that is commonly attributed to nematode worms(Figure 2, top), will have a highly repetitive and easilyrecognizable melody line that somewhat resembles thefamiliar siren of an ambulance racing through a westernEuropean city.

When multiple locomotion trails are superimposed,a sort of paleontological counterpoint will result withseveral melody lines playing at once. While thiscircumstance might seem to produce cacophony, incertain situations there may be some common musicalthreads that a trained ear will be able to perceive. An aptexample is provided by the trace fossil Undichna, whichis a sinuous locomotion trail scratched in the sedimentsurface by one or two or three ventral fins of a fish as itskims along the sea floor or lake bottom (Figure 2,bottom).The alternating footprints in a vertebrate trackway mightyield a series of sounds akin to the well-known"clip-clop" that characterizes the "On the Trail"movement of Ferde Grofe's "Grand Canyon Suite".Sonified renderings of trackways made by bipedal andquadrupedal dinosaurs may be distinguished from oneanother (Figure 3). In fact, the listener should be able totell whether a bipedal dinosaur was walking or hopping,


Figure 1. Ammonoid cephalopod suture patterns.Goniatitic suture of Manticoceras (top),characterized by smooth lobes and saddles,Devonian, Morocco. Ceratitic suture of Meekoceras(middle), characterized by serrated lobes and smoothsaddles, Triassic, Utah. Ammonitic suture ofScaphites (bottom), characterized by highly wrinkledlobes and saddles, Upper Cretaceous, Utah. Whensonified, the goniatitic suture will rise and fallsmoothly in pitch, while the ceratitic suture will besmooth in the high notes and wavering in the lownotes, and the ammonitic suture will rapidly rise andfall in pitch in very complex fashion.

Figure 2. Two different types of locomotion trails.Cochlichnus (top), the trace fossil of a horizontalcrawling trail attributed to a nematode worm,Eocene, Utah. Undichna britannica (bottom), thetrace fossil of a swimming trail of a bony fish, whichdragged both its anal fin and its caudal fin inundulating fashion along the sediment surface, UpperCretaceous, Spain. When sonified, the worm trail willsimply rise and fall in pitch in an evenly repetitivefashion, while the fish trail will produce thepolyphonic sound of two simultaneous sine curvesthat are out of phase.

and whether a quadrupedal dinosaur was walking witha symmetrical gait or an asymmetrical gait.

PALEONTOLOGICAL SONIFICATION INTHE CLASSROOM

Paleontological sonification can be demonstrated in theclassroom using a spectrum of fossils that are readilyavailable to instructors. As already mentioned,cephalopod fossils with visible sutures are excellentexamples for study. Students should be able to recognizethe characteristic sound patterns of goniatitic, ceratitic

and ammonitic sutures without much trouble. Linedrawings of various cephalopod suture patterns may befound in most paleontology textbooks, as well as in theTreatise on Invertebrate Paleontology and the voluminousprimary literature on fossil cephalopods. Photocopiedenlargements of the suture drawings will work just finefor classroom use. If the students want to acquire the datadirectly from actual fossil specimens, they can take acephalopod shell and simply trace the suture line ontothin tracing paper, transparent plastic wrap or invisiblecellophane tape using a fine-point marking pen.Alternatively, the image-processing capabilities ofcommercial computer software, such as AdobePhotoshop or Adobe Illustrator, can be used to extractline drawings from pertinent portions of scanned images of fossils.

Certain trace fossils, such as crawling trails ofinvertebrates or trackways of vertebrates, also offerinteresting possibilities. Students may be able todistinguish the different types of gaits of walking,running and hopping animals by their characteristicrhythmic patterns. The shapes of commissure lines ofarticulate brachiopods may be sonified. Students shouldbe able to hear the difference between the smoothlycurved commissure of Paraspirifer, a spiriferidbrachiopod (Figure 4, top), from the jagged zigzagcommissure of Platystrophia, an orthid brachiopod(Figure 4, bottom). They at least should be able to hearrise in pitch that reflects the shape of the medial


Figure 3. Idealized diagrams of five types of dinosaurtrackways (adapted from Thulborn, 1980, Figs. 5.1and 5.2). The top three trackways were made bybipedal dinosaurs, either walking or hopping, and thebottom two trackways were made by quadrupedaldinosaurs, walking with either a symmetrical gait oran asymmetrical gait. Differences in the sonifiedrepresentations of these trackways will allow thelistener to determine whether the dinosaur waswalking on two legs or four legs and also todistinguish among different types of gaits.

Figure 4. Commissures of two articulate brachiopods.Paraspirifer acuminatus (top) with a smoothlycurved, highly arched commissure, Lower Devonian,Maryland. Platystrophia ponderosa (bottom) with asharply zigzag commissure, Upper Ordovician, Ohio.When sonified, the commissure of Paraspirifer willrise and fall steeply and smoothly in pitch, while thecommissure of Platystrophia will jump up and downabruptly in a much more jerky fashion.

deflection in the anterior part of the brachiopodcommissure. Some aspects of pelecypod dentition, suchas the straight and even taxodont dentition of Anadara(Figure 5, top) or the more arcuate taxodont dentition ofGlycymeris (Figure 5, bottom), provide instructiveexamples of sonification. The proparian facial suture ofDalmanites, a Silurian trilobite (Figure 6, top), will have adistinctly different sound from the opisthoparian facialsuture of Asaphiscus, a Cambrian trilobite (Figure 6,bottom). The characteristic five-fold symmetry of thecalcite plates in echinoid tests also might present someintriguing possibilities for sonification (played in 5/4time, of course!).

At present, there are no ready-made softwarepackages that were designed specifically forpaleontological sonification. However, there are avariety of sound-producing computer programs that areavailable commercially and are employed widely bymusic educators and professional musicians. Some ofthese programs, such as "Finale", allow sounds to beinput into a computer using a microphone or MIDI inputdevice in order to create sound files, which can be editedand printed in standard musical notation. (Forinformation about "Finale", readers may consult the website at: http://www.codamusic.com/finale/)

More applicable to sonification of fossil shape data,some other programs allow for an image file to be pastedinto an x-y template that can be rendered aurally as aseries of tones (i.e., with pitch determined by position onthe y axis and tempo produced by progress along the xaxis). One such program is "Metasynth", which allows aMacintosh computer to emulate a music synthesizer.(For information about "Metasynth", readers mayconsult the web site at: http://www.metasynth.com/)

In the absence of suitable computer hardware and/orsoftware support, paleontological sonification may bedemonstrated quickly and easily to students in aclassroom setting using acoustic instruments or thehuman voice. Instruments that can produce continuoustone rows, such as a violin or trombone, are especiallyeffective in producing smoothed glissandi (i.e., smearedlines of pitches) rather than discrete musical notes (i.e.,the chromatic scale of only twelve tones per octave). Suchcontinuous tone rows played on a violin or trombone candepict the sonified shapes of fossils in much more detailthan melodies composed of discrete notes and fingeredon the keys of a piano.

In the absence of a willing violinist, trombonist orother instrumentalist to demonstrate sonified fossilshapes in class, the students themselves may simply singthe shapes. A variation of the extinct television gameshow "Name That Tune" can make it a light-heartedexperience rather than a daunting exercise for shystudents. Such a game might involve a student singing aparticular ammonoid suture, for example, while his/herclassmates try to match up the audio rendition with theactual fossil by visually inspecting the sutures of severaldifferent specimens that are provided to them in the lab.

PALEONTOLOGICAL SONIFICATION INTHE LABORATORY

Several lab exercises employing sonification weredeveloped for use with University of Utah geologymajors in the undergraduate course, "Introduction toPaleobiology" (GEO 3180), during Spring Semester 2004.The sonification exercises were done within the broadercontext of comprehensive lab sessions devoted to


Figure 5. Taxodont dentition in the interior of thehinge of two pelecypods. Anadara diluvii (top) with astraight row of fairly even cardinal teeth, Pliocene,Italy. Glycymeris subovata (bottom) with an arcuatearrangement of cardinal teeth of variable size,Miocene, Maryland. When sonified, the hinge ofAnadara will be a nearly monotonic row of the samenotes, while the hinge of Glycymeris will be a series ofdiscrete notes that gradually rise and then fall.

Figure 6. Facial suture patterns of two trilobites.Asaphiscus wheeleri (top) with an opisthopariansuture, Middle Cambrian, Utah. Dalmanitesverrucosus (bottom) with a proparian suture, MiddleSilurian, Indiana. When sonified, the suture ofAsaphiscus will begin with a constant pitch, fallabruptly to a lower pitch, and then fall off moregradually, while the suture of Dalmanites willundulate in pitch at first and then fall off abruptly.

examining particular fossil groups. In addition to usingreal fossils and a standard audio CD player, we alsoemployed a theremin, which is a simple electronicmusical instrument that produces sounds of varyingpitches and volume levels by moving a hand in the airaround an electrical device. (For information aboutpurchasing an inexpensive theremin, readers mayconsult the web sites at: http://www.there-minworld.com or http://www.musiciansfriend.com)

Details of these lab exercises and the studentresponses are provided here.

First sonification lab exercise - Sonification ofbrachiopod commissures.

Introduction - The commissure of brachiopods is the linewhere the anterior edges of the two valves cometogether. The commissure line (especially in articulatebrachiopods) may have a very characteristic shape,which illustrates the medial deflection with the raisedfold (usually on the brachial valve) and depressed sulcus(usually on the pedicle valve). Plicae (corrugations) andcostae (radial ribs) also may be reflected in the shape ofthe commissure line. Students were instructed to look atthe wide variation in the shape of the commissures in thebrachiopod specimens that were provided in lab.A novel way to depict the shape of the commissure is byrendering the sinuous course of the commissure line as aseries of sounds. In other words, by sonifying acommissure line you can see and hear its shape at thesame time. This lab exercise experimented withsonifying the commissure lines of several differentbrachiopod taxa.

Activity - First, the students in the class were introducedto the general concept and methodology of sonificationof shape information derived from fossil specimens, andthen they were told how we can sonify the commissurelines of brachiopods. They received a handout thatillustrated ten articulate brachiopod species and clearlydepicted their commissures. Using a standard audio CDplayer, the sonified commissures of four un-namedexamples (which had been prepared using commercialsoftware) were played for the class, and the studentswere asked to indicate which brachiopod species theywere hearing. Without any hesitation at all, the studentscorrectly identified all four examples on the very first try.

Then the students were told that we were going toexperiment with eye-hand-ear-brain coordination - thatis, they were to look at a brachiopod, move their hand tocreate a sonic representation of the commissure shape,hear the shape, and register it in their brain. They wereshown how hand movements can be used to createsounds using a theremin, and several brachiopodexamples were demonstrated by waving a hand over thetheremin. Each student was given the opportunity toselect a brachiopod, play its commissure on the thereminfor the rest of the class, and then ask the other students toindicate which species of brachiopod was beingrepresented sonically. The class got about two-thirds ofthe answers correct on the first try.

Questions Posed to the Students - "Do you think ithelps you to discern the details of the commissure linesby simultaneously seeing and hearing them? And do youbelieve that your memory of those shapes will befacilitated by simultaneously seeing and hearing them?"

Student responses (excerpts transcribed verbatim fromtheir lab write-ups):

The sonification exercise was very interesting andI believe beneficial in remembering the shape ofthe commissure lines. The human mind likes touse [various] resources to cement ideas into thememory. By reinforcing shape through sound itallows this process to happen. I believe that inorder for this idea to be most effective,memorization of the name needs to occur.

Yes, it [sonification] does help me to get a betteridea of the details of commissure lines and toremember them by seeing and hearing them.When we were using the theremin, we had to sortof trace the lines with our eyes while listening tothe tone. It's similar to how drawing thespecimens makes you examine them more closelythan if you just picked it up and looked at it.

At first, I didn't believe that the brachiopodscould be distinguished by hearing them.However, upon hearing distinct patterns, myeyes almost immediately connected the soundwith a pattern. The combination of seeing andhearing helped me distinguish very subtledifferences in the commissures of the articulatebrachiopods. Overall a very surprising andinteresting result!

The experiment of sonifying brachiopodcommissures was most interesting. I am unsure,however, that this method is necessarily useful indiscerning the details of commissure lines - thepatterns of these are so simple that they may beeasily noted without special aid. I am alsouncertain that this would necessarily help me toremember these lines, although this may be dueto the insufficiency of my musical training.

I think that putting the commissure lines intosound form is a great idea for a learning tool. Bothhearing and seeing a form helps in recognizingand remembering the patterns of that form.However, it does not help with remembering thename of the pattern, which I find to be the mostdifficult part to remember. All in all I found theexercise an interesting exercise in sensorymemory.

The sonification exercise was a pleasant changefrom my usual scientific experience. I could see itbeing useful if more practice in it was available.Hearing definitely would be a good addition tomy overall understanding of anything really.However, unless much time was invested I don'tsee (or hear) it helping me to remember thesedifferent fossils.

I found the way in which I can see and hear acommissure line to be very interesting. Butbecause this is a new way of learning I do not feelthat it helped me to discern the details better. Ialso do not feel that my memory of the shapeswas improved by seeing and hearing them. Thisis because my mind is not used to thinking thisway. When I recall shapes I am used to


visualizing them. I think that with more exposureand practice, seeing and hearing the shapes mayimprove my learning but for now I would have tosay that I did not see an improvement.

Yes, [sonification] can help you distinguish them.We do tend to connect sound/smells to things wesee.

Instructor's Assessment - The students' response tothis lab exercise was surprisingly positive. They hadnever heard of nor thought of sonification prior to thissession, and yet they picked up on the conceptimmediately, readily understood what we were trying toaccomplish, and easily identified the fossils by hearingtheir shapes.

Second sonification lab exercise - Sonification oftrilobite facial sutures.

Introduction - The facial suture of a trilobite is the line onthe cephalon along which the dorsal carapace splitsduring moulting. The distinctive curved pattern ofproparian, gonatoparian and opisthoparian facialsutures of trilobites can be sonified easily, much like thesonified commissures of brachiopods that the studentsexperimented with in a previous lab. Students should beable to recognize the major types of trilobite sutureshapes by hearing them.

Activity - First, computer-generated suture lines of fourcommon trilobite species were played on an audio CDplayer, so that the students could hear what a sonifiedsuture might sound like. Then the students were asked toselect several real trilobite fossils and to draw theirsuture lines, while humming out loud (or if theypreferred, imagining the humming in their minds) thesound of the suture patterns that they were drawing asthey were drawing them.

Then the sonified suture patterns of several differenttrilobite species were demonstrated using a theremin.Each student was given the opportunity to use their ownhand movements with the theremin in order to play oneof the suture patterns that they had previously drawn onpaper. Other classmates were invited to go to theblackboard and draw the suture pattern that they werehearing using a piece of chalk. The student playing thesuture on the theremin then compared the drawings onthe blackboard with the drawing that the player hadpreviously produced on paper, and he/she awardedpoints to those classmates who had reproduced thesuture pattern on the blackboard with the greatestaccuracy.

Questions posed to the students - "Select specimens ofat least three different trilobite genera in which the facialsutures are clearly visible, and carefully draw thelefthand suture only. (Orient your drawing with thespecimen's anterior end to the left on the page.) Tryhumming the sound of the suture line's shape as youdraw it, and practice using a theremin to depict thesuture line's shape via sound. Now play (or hum) thesutures you've drawn, and ask your classmates to drawthe sutures that they hear. Then write a brief discussionof how well they were able to reproduce the suture lineby hearing it, and list several specific suggestions formaximizing the effectiveness of communicating theshape of sutures via sound."

Student responses (excerpts transcribed verbatimfrom their lab write-ups):

We were generally able to reproduce the facialsuture lines fairly well. I think that we wouldhave more success with more practice inattempting this, especially in playing thetheremin. Furthermore, to be very good at this wewould need a rigorous means of associating pitchwith position on the vertical axis. The drawingsthat we made had marked and variabledistortions between the vertical and horizontalaxes.

Reproduction of the sutures was done well fromear to hand, but more difficult to go from eyes tohand (using the theremin). [We should] … havemore practice on the theremin, close eyes, [andmaybe use] booths to remove the outside sound.

The classmates were able to reproduce the suturelines quite well actually. Everyone drew verysimilar lines. My specific suggestion is tocompletely tune into the sound. Maybe even closeyour eyes so you can completely forget aboutyour sight. More practice on the theremin wouldalso help too. But really focusing on the sounditself makes it work the best.

I think that we spent a bit too much time on thisexercise. To maximize the effectiveness of thisexercise, I would practice on the theremin, closemy eyes when drawing the facial suture pattern,and practice drawing different tones.

Hand/ear coordination seems to work reallywell. Suggest more practice with theremin toimprove effectiveness.

From the activity of having the drawing of thesuture competition, it appears that everyone wasable to reproduce the facial suture to somedegree. In every instance, everybody drew ageneral shape. The only things that appeared tovary were the degree of magnitude of pitch andtime in each drawing. There are a few ways that amore consistent suture could be drawn in everycase: practice on the theremin (sometimes thesounds we produced weren't accurate of thedrawing we were trying to copy); a scaled graphof pitch and time (eliminating too big or too smallcurves).

Suture lines were well sonified, and individualrenderings were remarkably close. Increasing theamplitude of the sonification would make detailsin the sound more clear. Perhaps the amplifiedline is less representative of the shape, but thedetails are more noticeable.

Everyone was able to reproduce what they heardquite well, but playing the shapes of the sutureswas difficult. The sutures are so similar that it ishard to identify proparian from opisthoparianfrom gonatoparian [sutures], unlike thebrachiopod commissure lines. I'm not sure ifthere is a better way to communicate facialsutures by sound other than being more


proficient with the instrument that it's beingplayed on.

Instructor's Assessment - The students seemed to havefun with this exercise, as they made it into something of agame to determine who was best at (a) playing the sutureline on the theremin and (b) drawing the suture line theywere hearing on the blackboard. All students drew afairly accurate representation of the suture lines,although some students did so with greater precisionthan others. Also, some students were more adept atplaying the theremin than others, but it was quiteenlightening to see that all of the students were able todraw a faithful reproduction of the shapes that they werehearing from the theremin. Although some of themdoubted the quality of their own eye-hand-earcoordination in this exercise, they all did surprisinglywell.

Third sonification lab exercise - Sonification ofcephalopod septal sutures.

Introduction - The shape of a septum in the interior of ashell of an ammonoid cephalopod is reflected in thesuture, which is the line of intersection between the edgeof a septum and the ammonoid's external shell. A majortrend of ammonoid evolution can be traced in theincreasing complexity of suture geometries from simplegoniatitic suture patterns in the Late Paleozoic tointermediate ceratitic sutures in the Triassic to complexammonitic suture patterns in the Jurassic andCretaceous. The highly intricate and characteristic suturepatterns of ammonoid cephalopods can be sonified withinteresting results. At the very least, the three generalcategories of suture patterns of goniaites, ceratites andammonites can be easily differentiated by hearing them.With some practice, different families, genera or evenspecies of goniatites, ceratites and ammonites may berecognized by means of their sonified suture patterns.

Activity - Students were asked to try to recognize thevarious genera of ammonoids that were provided in labby listening to their sonified sutures. Also, theyexperimented with the theremin in an attempt to sonifythe sutures of the three principle kinds of ammonoids(goniatites, ceratites and ammonites).

First, computer-generated suture lines of a dozencommon genera of shelled cephalopods were played forthe class on an audio CD player, so that the studentscould hear what a sonified suture might sound like. Bysimply listening, everyone in the class was able todistinguish between the general categories of goniatitic,ceratitic and ammonitic suture patterns with 100 per centaccuracy. Further, they were able to identify theparticular genera of ammonoids with an accuracy ofabout two out of three. Then the students were instructedto take turns with the theremin. Each student chose anammonoid genus and played its suture on theremin forthe rest of the class, and the other students were asked todetermine which genus of ammonoid they werelistening to. Again, the other students were able toidentify the particular genera of ammonoids with anaccuracy of about two out of three.

Questions Posed to the Students - "Although thesuture actually wraps around the shell from the venter tothe umbilicus, the suture pattern typically is drawn asjust a two-dimensional line. How might a paleontologist

attempt to render the three-dimensional aspect of anammonoid suture using sound? Where do you think thegreatest potential for sonification of cephalopod suturepatterns lies?"

Student responses (excerpts transcribed verbatimfrom their lab write-ups):

Perhaps adjusting pitch and volume couldrepresent 3-D. Two instruments or different tonalqualities could represent three dimensions.Dimensions could be useful for separating maintypes of suture types, as well as to helpdistinguish and remember suture details.

Certainly, 'pitch x time' is an inadequate way ofrepresenting a 3-dimensional object. Some othervariable must be included. Perhaps Iunderestimate the strength of the human ear, butthe complexity of 3-D sound would beinprocessible. Sonification seems moreappropriate for linear renderings.

To attempt to recreate a 3-dimensional suturepattern with sound one could use stereo sound,or one could use tone and volume to try to create3-D sound. I think the greatest potential is in 2-Dlines.

Possible ways to sonify the entire septum wouldinclude using different instruments, using stereo,or using sounds of different volume. After havingthought about it, I must confess myself uncertainas to where the greatest potential for sonificationof cephalopod sutures lies.

3-D aspect can be rendered by sound using thehigh/low pitch and hard/soft sound or twodifferent tones by using different instruments. Ican see potential but not great potential. Itsgreatest aspect is to decipher between the types ofsutures but not the individual species. I do seethat this could replace seeing the sutures - somepeople think more with their ears (especiallyblind people).

A 3-dimensional sound might be produced byusing surround sound and varying the volume toindicate distance from center - similar to whenyou hear a helicopter flying over. The louder thesound, the closer it is. The greatest potential ofsuture patterns lies in artistic production - findingsound patterns that have a pleasing sound.

Different instrumentation, stereo/surroundsound. I think the potential for sonification ofcephalopod sutures is in helping to memorize thedifference between the three types but not thedifference between genuses with the same type ofsuture (especially ammonite sutures), becausethey're too similar.

The 3-D could be represented by a series of soundlines. Each line would represent a 2-D line on the3-D plane, and time would make the thirddimension. With more sound lines, the resolutionwould increase. However, I don't think this isreally a practical application of sonification. Inreal music, a person can only pay attention to two


sound lines at one time - three if they are reallygood - and all other harmonies are absorbedsubconsciously. So any 3-D surface can berepresented by sound, but there is no practicalreason to.

Surround sound (two different speakers), volumechanges (tone changes), or two differentinstruments - these are the greatest potential. Asfar as applying the use, not sure where to use.Helps to see differences in types of sutures. Canhelp enhance the understanding, and in theremembering.

Instructor's Assessment - The students seemed to takefor granted that sonification is an effective method forseparating the three major categories of cephalopodsuture patterns, but they expressed some skepticismabout identifying particular genera and species ofcephalopods in this way. However, they in fact weresuccessful in doing precisely that a majority of the time,and that's not too bad for their first attempt at listing tosonified sutures!

POTENTIAL RESEARCH APPLICATIONSOF PALEONTOLOGICAL SONIFICATION

Sonified shape information provides a useful non-visualtool for perceiving fossil morphology, so the potential foremploying sonification techniques in paleontologicalresearch seems promising. As mentioned above, somefossil shapes are almost instantly recognizable byhearing (e.g., smooth goniatitic sutures and simplelocomotion trace fossils). Other fossil patterns are muchmore complicated and will necessarily require someexperience in order to interpret them meaningfully (e.g.,highly ornate ammonitic sutures and compositeichnofabrics that incorporate several superimposed tracefossils). It must be emphasized, of course, thatsonification is intended merely to complement - not toreplace - the standard visual approaches to examiningand interpreting fossils.

Sonification may have applications in numerousareas of paleontological research. In taxonomic studies,for example, auditory descriptors of fossil shapeseventually may prove useful as taxobases foridentification and classification. In ethologic studies,forward modeling of idealized trace fossils may help toclarify the specific behaviors that explain how certaintypes of trace fossils were made. In evolutionary studies,changes in characteristic morphologic features throughtime might be represented by sonic signals. Intaphonomic studies, distracting preservational artifactsmight be removable by sonic methods. Inpaleoenvironmental analyses, auditory information may aid in the recognition of facies cycles andpaleoenvironmental changes. In stratigraphicinvestigations, sonified data may provide important newtools for correlation. Finally, sonified fossil data may bejustified simply as art for art's sake - in other words, fossilshapes may form the basis for music created purely foraesthetic enjoyment.

CONCLUSIONS

Sonification of paleontological data, such as the shapes ofbrachiopod commissures, trilobite sutures andcephalopod sutures, is an effective way of enhancing

visual cues with aural cues in order to improve students'perception and understanding of pertinent details offossil anatomy. Simple laboratory exercises withundergraduate geology majors demonstrate that many,if not most, students are quite receptive to auditorylearning, especially when linked with visual learning.

Almost any type of scientific data can be sonified -not just the shapes of body fossils and geometries of tracefossils - so the possibilities for employing sonification inteaching geoscience students are virtually limitless. Forexample, simple line graphs, such as sea level curves orpaleotemperature curves, can be presented to students inthe straightforward auditory fashion of a single row oftones of varying pitch. Tabulated data, such as aspreadsheet of fossil occurrences in a stratigraphicsequence, can be presented to students as multiple rowsof tones played simultaneously. Superimposed curves ofrelated data, such as different kinds of subsurface welllogs sonified and played simultaneously, can provide aninformative counterpoint of melody lines that may bediscerned by the more experienced listeners.

Many scientists today have remarkably discerninglistening skills that are under-utilized, if not totallyignored, in our teaching and learning activities in thegeosciences. In fact, an undetermined number of ourstudents actually are accomplished musicians whoalready have honed their ability to discern discretesound patterns to a very high degree. We stronglysuspect that many of these musically oriented studentsare pre-adapted for dealing with sonified data in quitesophisticated ways - indeed, in creative ways that haveyet to be explored and tested.

The approach of paleontological sonification that issuggested in this paper is just a first step in what couldturn out to be an exciting new direction in scienceeducation in the years to come.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank Joan Ekdale, Hans Hofmann and DolfSeilacher for artistic and scientific inspiration, and wethank Lori Chadwell, Eric Ekdale, Robert Lamond, TracyPeterson and Leif Tapanila for technical assistance. Thispaper was improved by considering insightfulsuggestions on an earlier version of the manuscript byPaul Harnick, Gary Rosenberg and an anonymousreviewer. A teaching innovation grant from theUniversity of Utah Teaching Committee (to AAE)supported the development of the classroom exercisesdescribed here.

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