prehistoric bullwhips

As you may be aware, the first human to break the sound barrier was Chuck Yeager, who did so in a rocket plane in 1947. However, scientists have also known since 1958 that the action of cracking a bullwhip also breaks the sound barrier — the thin, flexible tip of the whip surpasses the speed of sound for an instant, creating a sonic boom.

Here’s where it gets fun: according to a computer simulation created by Microsoft guru Nathan Myhrvold, sauropods, a suborder of dinosaurs that in late Jurassic and early Cretaceous set the records for the largest animals ever to live on land, could theoretically have cracked their tails like whips, creating sonic booms like cannonfire that would have resounded over prehistoric landscapes. Scientists are unsure of the purpose of such noisy displays, but have suggested that they may have played a role in male-male competition or discipline enforcement within a group.