As an educator, I completely appreciate the fact that PBS is actually making these documentaries available in their entirety. Thank you.

@i.m.evilhomer5084

Жыл бұрын

I suggest marathoning some of PBS Eons video to learn about some relatively new paleontological discoveries. PBS has some great yt channels in general, whether they be about science, history, mythology, or society.

@lotharschiese8559

Жыл бұрын

@bina nocht Essential to understanding

@teknoaija1762

11 ай бұрын

Then can you say why English language is so dismal that educated persons do not understand difference between to function and to work?

@thehighwayman78

10 ай бұрын

Yep that's socialism for ya right there 😂 Terrible

@STR82DVD

10 ай бұрын

@@thehighwayman78 Lol. Agreed. Completely horrid.

Nearly midnight and I've just discovered this video. I wish I could wake my kids as well as my dad 😪 but now I have to wait till morning to share. Absolutely amazing 👏

It's amazing how much we've learnt about Microraptor in the past 20 years since this documentary aired. Including its place in the dinosaur family tree. It indeed might be a potential ancestor to flightless dromaeosaurs like Velociraptor & Deinonychus. Alan Grant was on the money when he thought raptors could've flown. Then there's the dragon-like Yi Qi! I suggest watching some of PBS Eons' videos to learn more.

@komolkovathana8568

Жыл бұрын

Truly dinosaurs evolved with sharp BEAK and stronger hind legs, while fore (hands) legs were getting smaller and weaker. Only when they found the use of feather hands to keep warm and the feather make their fore arms better and stronger in MOTION asisted, whether in climbing trees or keep balancing and finally escaping into gliding and true flight.

@cruisepaige

Жыл бұрын

There’s one in every comment section.

I think that the artist rendering based on many fossil specimens is the better of the two. It lessens the error of self interpretation with several samples. Why would you make a model out of crushed bones from a single specimen? It's just crazy. 😊

Awesome documentary. Totally fascinating.

Amazinxing doc... All the air footage...

This is fascinating and so well presented. All options are considered. You get to see how scientists and biologists and fossil hunters work together to uncover evolutionary changes in the history of flight!

@timapple6586

Жыл бұрын

Sorry. But that is just not how documentaries work. Nor is it an accurate 'real world' view of how science works - brain-storming sessions and rock-star epiphanies are rare events. Filmmakers and scientists are essentially egoists just like anyone else... perhaps by necessity. Confirmation bias runs rampant in both fields... but in a Jungian sense, that might also be a good thing. 🙃 If I've offended you, then that simply reinforces my point.

I’ve seen ducklings do the climbing thing it’s quite amazing

Denying birds aren't a type of dinosaur is like saying Bats aren't mammals

@irena4545

Жыл бұрын

Or flying squirrels. The argument "arboreal means it can't have been dinosaur" really doesn't make sense to me.

It seems a bit strange to argue that flight could only evolve in one of two ways. Surely the very same animal could use both techniques to aid its survival long enough to pass on its genes?

It's interesting that they all assume the feathers on the legs had to of been used as secondary set of wings. They could have been used more like a modern birds tail in flight, like the webbing between bats legs only with feathers.

Neumans argument for arboreal flight may have happened but the reaching out to grab prey with front arms could easily evolve to the functional mechanics of flapping.

8:13 Why did the dinosaur birds all look like stuffed animals? I love the cute teeth and crazed expression of 8:22

Magnificent Documentary! 💜

Thanks for posting.

I would have liked to see the sprawling model put into the wind tunnel as well.

@jamesmccavcitt3992

Жыл бұрын

I was wondering that too

I appreciate the work and skill of modern archeologists, but we are just scraping the surface of what life was truely like there would be thousands if not millions of unknown species we humans will never truely know the entire truth of ancient life. But the men on this team are still finding species and like I said I appreciate them. Great Documentary Thank You.

Nice documentary, fully explained, exploring all ideas.

As a Dr I wholly appreciate the PBS for making these documentaries and so does the general public , do you get it!

Well presented; fascinating, and there aremany possibilities that in time will perhaps provide a plausible conclusion to the mystery.Thanks for an enjoyable and thought provoking video.

This was fun.. need more like this one.

Brilliant documentary ❤

Thanks for sharing this excellent video 🙏🏻

"It has thrown our understanding into a new and productive chaos" - that reminds me of Earl C Kelley's teaching statement : “We have not succeeded in answering all our problems. The answers we have found only serve to raise a whole set of new questions. In some ways we feel we are as confused as ever, but we believe we are confused on a higher level and about more important things.” ― Earl C. Kelley

Highly educative. Many likes!

Mindblowing. Thank You for the great content. .

The fact that they used puppets instead of CGI is so cool ❤

I love this video. Thanks.

Micro Raptor is a tiny Avian Dinosaur that might have inspired the mythical creature like Dragon if we carefully look at its fossil.

I keep thinking of that amazing TED talk - where’s all the baby dinosaurs!

Extrêmement intéressant ! / Extremely interesting. Thanks / Merci !

Perhaps it was something similar to a reptile version of the flying squirl. A creature that glided using all its limbs.

If you have a 2D model and know the original object was in 3D. If you apply the Golden Ratio you should be able to recreate a 3D model of the same object, as you know it must originally be a 3D animal

12:24 Correction: You knew that back in the sixties already. Long before Jurrasic Park was made. And they ignored it and did showed us incorrect dinosaurs, knowing full well they were incorrect.

@apassionatenerd.3564

Жыл бұрын

It was also an action film not a science documentary, featherless reptiles looked more intimidating than big chickens.

@samamies88

Жыл бұрын

While JP got things incorrect - there kinda is in-universe explanation for it too. The dino dna they used was not complete so they mixed stuff like frogs and lizard dna with it to make it more complete. This not only explains asexual reproduction we see in the movies but also would explain the lack of feathers.

Apart from the brilliant work and methodical meticulous research executed by these scientists, superbly showcased by NOVA/PBS, it highlights the the incredible roadblock to progress and understanding international conflicts yield; featured here are great minds from the United States and China collaborating to solve a fascinating paleontological mystery. The same is true for aerospace research and design, and other fields of engineering, indeed with all the sciences including medicine. With the great minds of the West, China, Russia and those from all other areas of the world, together working as a team we can achieve so much incredible good. Why must we insist on competing and arrogantly/ignorantly arguing, or simply not having enough respect for one another, leading to conflict and the notion of controlling or worse trying to blow one another up!? The resulting destruction only pollutes our beautiful planet more than we already have, wasting tremendous amounts of money that would have been better invested elsewhere. Ultimately at the end of it all absolutely NO ONE WINS! All that is achieved is just a great deal of heartache and misery amongst unnecessary bloodshed. Will we ever evolve from our Chimpanzee/Ape mentality? Moving forward together as a respectful collaborative international community presents such unlimited potential for glorious possibilities, the leaders of these conflicting nations do not represent the voices and attitudes of their respective citizens, they only perniciously manipulate them with their own vile malignant agendas.

information is great. presentation is more of a question. overall quite good - i am just a consumer of documentaries, not an expert.

Possibly his first field trip going by how his new his hammer is ,lol

Fascinating, but did I miss any discussion of "opposite birds" (Enantiornithes)? Where do they fit in?

This was an excellent demonstration of how rigorous scientific research advances our knowledge of the natural world. 10/10.

awesome scientists.

I'm going with - Microraptor IS a Dinosaur and IS effectively the ancestor of birds. I think it was probably an efficient arboreal glider and that, as the advantages of powered flight put evolutionary pressure on its descendants to strengthen and specialise their forelimbs, so the hindlimbs' requirements changed from being flight focussed to being more as we see in modern birds. The shortening and fanning out of the tail may have played a part in this although it looks as if this came later as Archaeopteryx still has a long tail but has already moved to a two-wing configuration. As for the terrestrial hypothesis - imagine that you are an Archaeopteryx chick running up a branch to escape a predator - you are not going to think to yourself "I'd better not use my wings because this will lead to inherited behaviour that will confuse future palaeontologists" - you will use everything available to you to get out of the predator's reach as quickly as possible.

@julesgosnell9791

Жыл бұрын

This program did look rather dated - I expect all this modelling could now be done in software based directly on merged scans of all the specimens if the technology is available in China - I am off to wikipedia now to see if my predictions came true :-)

@znail4675

Жыл бұрын

It looks like the feathers on the legs fill the same role as tail feathers on modern birds, while the arms look very similar. It's not much of a stretch for the legs to lose their role with developing tail feathers on a shorter tail.

Larry Martin's theory has major flaws IMO, it assumes evolution must always take the path of least resistance. It also completely disregards the possibility of divergent evolution of flight. I don't seen an issue with dinosaurs developing flight from a running start, and I don't see issues with other dinosaurs being able to climb trees and dive start, but one thing I can say is being able to fly from a running start is way more versatile than dive-flyers and evolution has shown that, most birds today use running starts, which kind of points to the fact that dive starters were less successful and died out.

Some breeds of chickens have feathers on their feet.

i think the feathers the Raptor uses are for Gliding and Display for Mating

What I find interesting is the claws they seam to me tree hugging and don't forget the trees were as high as mountains. A rooster has feathers on its legs and can fly short distances. But this flying Raptor bird has claws on the wings like a bat and other tree hugging creature. These guys for and against working together so good and does seam to be a glider.

@DownhillAllTheWay

Жыл бұрын

" this flying Raptor bird has claws on the wings like a bat " - or like the chicks of the Hoatzin, which *_is_* a bird.

@DownhillAllTheWay

Жыл бұрын

In fact, according to the guy in this video ... kzread.info/dash/bejne/e42q2K6TZqTdYag.html ... all birds have the provision for claws on their wings, but they are reabsorbed while the bird is still in the egg. The hoatzin also has little stubs of teeth at that stage, but they, also, are reabsorbed and it is born with a normal beak.

Some larger birds hold their legs in a 45 degree angle when they land, it's to stabilize the descent 😁

@17:56 Magellan didn't survive the trip, he never went completely around the world, his slave was the first person to do so. So he never got frustrated by people telling him for twenty years the earth was flat.

My ancestors, the synapsids, were friend with many reptiles.

NOT DYING & landing safely is more important than gliding or flying, Living things have the opportunity to try & try again.

América Latina también existe y queremos disfrutar sus grandes e interesantes documentales en Español

The long featherless tail on both sides environmentally pressured the hind legs for feathers as support ; however the shortening of the tail with guiding feathers made it useless to have feathers on the hind limbs .

I was shouting at the wind tunnel team at the start, to try the feet back solution, per the suggestion of Chu(?) at the end. Even then they didn’t get it quite ideal (it can be more efficient), per many birds as they take-off/fly/land (not all birds tuck their legs). It would have been nice to see ‘splayed’ and ‘splayed halfway back’, tests too, rather than outright dismissing/ignoring it in favour of opinion and theory. That then gives you a fuller base for dismissal or possibilities.

mindblowing of our Lord's creation!!!!!!

Ground up, trees down.... Why not both?

@geofflau4215

Жыл бұрын

If you consider birds as a monophyletic group, i.e. all birds originate from one ancestor, then it's more likely to be one or the other. Even if birds eventually evolved both functions, one of them should precede the other, i.e. flapping to help with achieving steep inclines first, which then led to gliding/flying, or parachuting/flapping flight first, which led to wing assisted incline running in flightless juveniles.

@LucVNO

Жыл бұрын

@@geofflau4215 I dont think any of the main animal groups stem down from single animals.... most, if not all developed as a range of animals evolving together alongside each other in similar circumstances. It wasnt just one animal that developed feathers, its was a broad range which were all adapting to the same colder conditions. Its why almost all Northern animals are white. Its not that they all evolved from a single white animal. They all co evolve for whiteness. Back to birds, theres no reason why both activities, running fast & learning to climb couldnt have been done by different groups of lizards, who both responded to cooling climate by producing feathers from their scales.

@geofflau4215

Жыл бұрын

@@LucVNO I think you might be conflating phenotypic convergence with phylogeny though. Certainly animals that live in monocolour environments would likely converge upon that trait simply out of survival - anything that didn't develop the mutation necessary for a white exterior would promptly be consumed in a landscape of snow - but that's unrelated to actual classes of animals evolving. Genetic evidence tells us that all extant birds (avialae) evolved from a single common ancestor nested within the maniraptoran dinosaurs. Certainly feathers came long before that, and certainly many dinosaurs had feathers, and possibly at least several of them also gave rise to bird-like descendants that even could have flown, but the K-T event left only the birds we see surviving today. in the case of how the extant birds learned to fly - well, the truth is, it might be improbable that we'd figure out anytime soon. It's certainly correct that flight may have evolved from either the "ground-up" or "trees-down" theory, but the documentary ironically fails to recognize is that microraptor was not a bird, and therefore how it developed may have absolutely no bearing on how the common ancestors of extant birds developed flight.

Very old show, but still interesting.

@Captain_Gargoyle

Жыл бұрын

Maybe when it originally aired there was more of a controversy about the evolutionary ancestry of birds...but i kind of doubt it. I think even at the time this doc was made they found the fringe element in Neuman and made it seem like the matter was more ambiguous than it really is.

There's no reason to think that flight didn't evolve in different ways. After all, flight has evolved AT LEAST four times (insects, pterosaurs, birds, and bats) and possibly more.

I didn't know dinosaurs were so small and looked like sesame street characters.

Not a mystery, freak'n obvious. Predators that climb trees and jump, the ones that could jump further without injury win. Raptors claws are for climbing, not just killing.

Well, how did bats or pterosaurs evolved flight? Maybe that would be a clue. There are gliding lizards but no running until they get to fly lizards. I also think it's easier to evolve a stronger flight muscle by practicing it...maybe after hundreds of years of gliding, than trying to flap your arm feathers until you evolve to be able to fly from the ground.

Some chickens have feathered legs and feet so does the snowy owl

Truthfully how long would it take to make a fossil if you wanted Im guessing weather and location would have to be complimentary

What I don't understand is why they even were trying to see if the legs could slay outwards? How many birds fly with their legs splayed outwards? And now the claw makes more sense that they were used for gripping onto trees to climb

The biggest mistake they make is in the assumption that this creature achieves static flight. The creature would fly using continuously shifting postures and flapping of wings with micro adjustments according to what it wants to do. Like birds and every other known flying animal.

35:22 - this is NOT how an aeroplane or a wing works! A wing works by deflecting downwards a mass of air the same mass as the plane. The power to do this is generated by engines pushing the plane forwards. Here's the golden rule: if you ever see a video, which claims to inform you how a wing generates lift - it's wrong.

..the Mille Fleur / Booted bantam poultry have feathers on their legs and feets..

Brahma chickens have feathers on their feet, still exist today

I find the comment that dinosaurs could not climb trees an absurd assumption. I have seen foxes climb trees, yet they are a ground mammal animal. Why could not small dinosaurs have climbed trees during their 160 million year existence? Humans have only been around 4 million years, look how far we have evolved in such a very short period of time.

@derantorkiarig4592

Жыл бұрын

Because the dude saying that had a chip on his shoulder - he's been at it for 30 years or so trying to prove that it weren't dinosaurs, so he's far too emotionally invested to take a step back and assess his own reasoning.

the legs can cause extra lift in the turns

4 wings?! How?!

I realize this is a doc so it's not going to go into every detail and it's probably creatively edited as well...but just on the basis of this video Nueman's argument seems tenuous. 1) Dinosaurs couldn't climb trees...says who? 2) More importantly, he seems to be basing the idea that Microraptor is not a dinosaur from a single character: the sprawling hip. I'm no anatomist but i'm pretty sure Microraptor has a lot of characters that show it to be nested deeply within Dinosauria. Neuman seems to be arguing that it branched off at the Archosaur level and...i guess just convergently evolved every single other character common to maniraptoran dinosaurs? Seems unlikely.

(12:06) Birds ARE dinosaurs!...

they didnt get it wrong, the 1st evidence of feathered dinosaurs came after the release of JP1, which is why in JP2 they have some proto-feathers on their heads, then we have the need for visual continuance in JP's 3-5 and finally a fully feathered pyrriraptor in dominion.

It started with big Dino with feathers which were for display in mating. Then the Oxyigin level went down the Dino got smaller and then they could climb then they could glide them from gliding became flight...

@Captain_Gargoyle

Жыл бұрын

@@donaldpaton1691 Peacocks don't have feathers purely for sexual display. They have some specialized feathers for display in addition to the ones for flight and insulation.

22:28 Computer modeling?

@lotharschiese8559

Жыл бұрын

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!

Ive seen chickens with feathers on their feet not long one but still feathers

Crocodiles and many marine species survived the asteroid extinction.

I wish we had some killer Dinos around. Like Raptors and T-Rex on every corner and Pterosaur in full force and all of them very hungry. Maybe that would unite us. Maybe!

I dunno why but I only see two wings. When that was preserved in the stone, its’ two wings were folded backwards that’s why we see also feathers on its feet?

@thekaxmax

Жыл бұрын

It's not the only fossil we have, and they've been issued by MRI. 4 wings.

@ianb9028

Жыл бұрын

After reading your comment i went back over the video. I think you may be correct.

The splayed nature of the microraptor bones that were squished under tons of ash? If you take a chicken bone and soak it in vinegar for a while, you can tie that bone in a knot. Volcanic ash is notorious for being acidic. Think about it. 27:10

Well yes birds flap when they go up a steep incline, so maybe microraptor did the same but to a smaller degree due to not having powered flight due to being a glider, however I doubt microraptor as a species is the direct ancestor of all birds but very closely related. And the species that did evolve into modern birds used the flapping more and more when gliding but its just my opinion.

Giddy up this is amazing.

A dinosaur with feathers was it more for insulation, than flight.

1st thing come to my mind: squirrel

they had feathers, and flapped their small wings while climbing up trees to escape from predators... then one day... it floated... who knows how long that took. you can see the evidence in chickens, which don't fly, and eagles; which are the best fliers... the fossil could be from a lineage that died out because it has long feathers getting in the way of climbing and that long tail too ... and think about it.. if they use their legs less, their legs should shrink and and arms expand from flapping all the time and the better flapping, the faster you get up the tree and surviving to breed... ps eagles have feathers on their legs :)

With millions of insect species I wouldn’t call this the age of dinosaurs nor mammals

38. 38... Check !!!

@williamsearle8187

Жыл бұрын

Haha, in there- there was zero comments allowed !!!!

I'm confused, wasn't this fossil accused of being a hoax in 2005? Does anyone have any updates on this?

@scullydestruction

10 ай бұрын

That's Archeoraptor

Well, as they say, Ontology recapitulates Phylogeny , right ??

40 years ago, no one seriously thought that dinosaurs were slow. Dim-witted, perhaps (stegosaurus had to have two brains, after all), but speed is a result of form. No one thought that you could just casually sashay away from a tyrannosaurus rex. And birds are not dinosaurs. They don't look like dinosaurs, and if birds are dinosaurs, then I'm a fish (and, at that point, words just lose all meaning). A dinosaur with feathers is just that: a dinosaur with feathers. I'll let you debate if that qualifies as a reptile, but it's obviously not a bird.

Glider

well that's how bird fly right , i mean when they jump of the tree , they put their leg straight behind and when they gonna land on another tree they push their leg forward . and just like the ancestor , bird could be branched out from 3 different dinosaur , tree dinosaur ,water dinosaur and land dinosaur . since because we did has 3 kind of bird , the land flightless and the run leap flight bird , the tree jumping flighter , and the swimming bird (penguin,duck and any other water dweller bird) who has flipper than a wing . and then we have a platypus (what the heck is this thing ??) . well our taxonomy is based on assumption for the most , so we not really really sure where they come from . either bird is evolved/adapted from dinosaur or , they are indeed their own species of dinosaur . we also have all those pterosaur ,and all those flying mammals ... but we all know for sure that bird and reptile meat is has similar taste . like how some insect and crustacean did .

What fabulous fossil records from China.

I gather it was more a predator glider and may not have flown at all. Living mostly in the huge prehistoric trees and rain forests of old. feathers on the feet would perhaps help it break a stop when landing and place its feet more precisly. a feat geatly in need high up.

47:44 So here's me thinking: Well yes. That's kind of how I imagined it might work. It's such a kind of dumb theory anyone could come up with... Why is Xu the only one among you who even came up with it and wanted to try it???

Aren't there dinosaurs with skin wings on just their legs like Sharovipteryx? It seems to me (with my uneducated opinion) that wings on the legs is for gliding. But maybe the wings on the arms could make the wings have 2 purposes? Maybe it also flew like a bird?🤷‍♀️

Pekin chickens have feathers on their feet.

"virtual Pompei" should be dinosaur Pompei. Nothing virtual about it.

If one animal climbed trees and launched from there means they all did. Does that necessarily follow?

@neddyladdy

Жыл бұрын

@bina nocht You're telling me that it happened in one generation

if not dinos then where is the archeological record of their ancestors?

Though interesting. There is a lot of speculation and assumptions being used.