Insect fossils lead scientists to the singing katydid and sounds of the Mesozoic

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Around 200 million years ago, katydids, an insect group related to grasshoppers and crickets, were already singing to communicate to attract mates and hearing long-distance calls, a new study has found.

A team of international scientists that studied fossils from China, Central Asia and Africa said katydids from the Mesozoic period were the earliest known animals to have evolved high-frequency musical calls, after analysing around 100 well-preserved specimens.