Were These Animals Too Big to Fly? - Azhdarchids (Part 2)
At long last it is here! Part 2! In this video we look at just how these huge animals were able to get into the ancient skies and stay there.
Part 1: • Giants of the Ancient ...
Part 3: • Giant Prehistoric Deat...
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Sources:
markwitton-com.blogspot.com/20...
markwitton-com.blogspot.com/20...
www.amazon.com/Pterosaurs-Nat...
journals.plos.org/plosone/art...
journals.plos.org/plosone/art...
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/1...
svpow.com/2015/10/19/how-ligh...
Пікірлер: 681
Azhdarchids after argument with mom: >:( "I'm going to go for a walk" *flies around the world*
@rickcharlespersonal
4 жыл бұрын
Definitely LOL'd.
@dunerh
4 жыл бұрын
@@rickcharlespersonal /:
animal that can fly with size of little airplane....must be astonishing sight at that time.
@Dell-ol6hb
4 жыл бұрын
채주형 at any time it would be astonishing
@jamesdunn9714
4 жыл бұрын
Well, no human was around to be astonished "at that time". The other fauna were not capable of astonishment.
@ronniessebaggala362
4 жыл бұрын
@@jamesdunn9714 how are you so certain?
@ronniessebaggala362
4 жыл бұрын
@@laytonrupp2909 we are animals too, no?
@pratikghosh9252
4 жыл бұрын
@@ronniessebaggala362 we are sentient animals. Conscious/aware. They don't sit down n just look at another creature taking flight gracefully n marvel at it for long times talking to each other. 😂
still waiting for Azhdarchids Part 3 :p
@noora1142
4 жыл бұрын
Only a year left to wait
@sebastianortega1938
4 жыл бұрын
I'm still waiting for part 4 tbh...
@SamO-ik2cm
4 жыл бұрын
And waiting....
@CouchCommander5000
4 жыл бұрын
and waiting...
@fatidiot693
4 жыл бұрын
Wait no more it’s out
So we could technically have giraffe sized bats evolving in the future
@patrickmccurry1563
4 жыл бұрын
Not really if only because mammalian lungs are too inefficient compared to "avian" for truly giant flying bats.
@pterosaur5245
4 жыл бұрын
If they developed more weight saving adaptations like pneumatized bones and losing the heavy teeth typical of mammals they could get fairly big. Also an air sac respiratory system would probably help, but this is unlikely to evolve, bats are constrained in this regard by the incidental engineering of their ancestors.
@carlosandleon
4 жыл бұрын
@@patrickmccurry1563 that can still happem, pterosaurs are more related to mammals than reptiles
@pterosaur5245
4 жыл бұрын
@@carlosandleon Actually, pterosaurs are diapsid reptiles of the archosaur lineage which also contains dinosaurs and crocodilians. They're about as far away from mammals as birds are.
@carlosandleon
4 жыл бұрын
@@pterosaur5245 I stand corrected
Please make a part three. To be released in one year.
@BenGThomas
4 жыл бұрын
I'm aiming for a little earlier than that... but we'll see what happens! :D
@23AlexandreJ
3 жыл бұрын
@@BenGThomas you lost such a good trolling opportunity
@annay.w.9544
2 жыл бұрын
Annual Azhdarchids™
Imagine yourself being a small mammal, going out of a burrow and you see a Quetzalcoatlus at a cliff edge and then it flaps it’s wings and fly over you. That would be a majestic sight, it’s sad their extinct. T-T
@chancegivens9390
4 жыл бұрын
I mean I'd be shitting myself but yeah I guess it would be incredible to see.
@shortfuse875
4 жыл бұрын
That'd be terrifying.
@damiion666
4 жыл бұрын
I’d love to take my shotgun and bring down a few of those beasts. Duck hunt anyone?
@denistyrant
4 жыл бұрын
They wouldn’t eat me, they will only eat duck hunters.
@greenergrass4060
4 жыл бұрын
Majestic AND Terrifying
Literally just watched the first part and subscribed yesterday. I only had to wait a day 😁
@westhuizenarchives2614
4 жыл бұрын
Ophious Lucky, I was one of those people who had to wait a year.
@Written_in_the_Starss
4 жыл бұрын
Youll be one of us waiting for a year for the next part.
2:15, imagine being a fierce tyrannosaurid scavenging in a carcass and a flying giraffe straight up t poses on you.
When you're finished with Azhdarchids, you should make a video focusing on Tapejarids. I think those pterosaurs are unique enough to deserve their own video!
Yeah! I have been waiting for this one. Thumbs up!
@Cactuslover37
4 жыл бұрын
Skoja inte, har längtat
0:17 That’s some the cutest baby-killin I’ve ever seen.
@MapIeJam
4 жыл бұрын
Those are fully grown
@_robustus_
4 жыл бұрын
benjamjon We were not given the therapod’s species. So for me it’s a baby tyrannosaur.
Welp, see you all in 2020 for part 3! :D
@occasionalart7597
4 жыл бұрын
Hello from 2020
I have Witton's book and I highly recommend it. It is an interesting read that in my opinion is very technical yet at the same time easy to understand and the artwork, provided by Witton himself, is absolutely beautiful.
It always struck me how top heavy they seem. I wonder how it kept balanced during flight?
@robinmatz6686
4 жыл бұрын
I imagine there is almost no weight in the skull and neck area. If you look at the scale of these creatures, for example the estimated 200-250kg for Quetzalcoatlus the a very big portion of that is located in the chest area, not to forget even the wings. Although the superlong necks and beaks are really a freaky sight viewn horizontally.
@iainmawhinney8867
4 жыл бұрын
that’s exactly what i thought
@justragequit7078
4 жыл бұрын
In order to have stable flight you need your center of gravity to be ahead of your center of lift. So as long as there head isnt to heavy it sould be fine
@kempbrown4402
Жыл бұрын
And if their bones weren't hollow they must have had way larger chest and back muscles than the artwork. Just look at the chest of tiny songbirds
@comedyman4896
Жыл бұрын
most likely their heads look bigger than they actually are due to feathers and skin flaps, the actual amount of bone and dense tissue is probably minimal. And of course they had hollow bones.
OH MY GOD how long have I waited for this. Thank You!
Idea for a follow-up; - What did they evolve from? - Different subgroups. Love the vids 😀😜 keep it up 😉
We need a computer cgi of one launching in flight and flying
Imagine seeing that while taking a casual stroll
@cosmicarc7978
3 жыл бұрын
Imagine going out for a stroll with a sandwich and instead of a seagull taking the sandwich, a giant giraffe bird thing takes the whole cafeteria with it.
When I saw the title, I was immediately reminded of Mark Witton's blog posts about this.
Pterosaurs should be compare to bats, not birds.
@Hihelloto
4 жыл бұрын
Why?
@TheEnabledDisabled
4 жыл бұрын
@@Hihelloto cause bats fly using all of their limbs, did you not watch the video?
@hansakkerman2611
4 жыл бұрын
Up to point, their wing membranes were a lot tougher than that of a bat's for example. Both fascinating creatures, nonetheless.
@hyksos74
4 жыл бұрын
@@Hihelloto Pterosaurs are much more closely related to birds than to bats, so certain physiological comparisons that way are valid.
@ant-onemusic444
4 жыл бұрын
Size for sure should make them very different flyers... Don't you think?
Didn't Sakurai finally prove that Ridley was NOT too big for smash?
Well, what a way to come back from a vacation. The missing episode about carnivorous giraffe planes, long overdue indeed, but a welcome surprise nonetheless! Thank you, Ben, much appreciated! :D
Why are Mesozoic animals so much more body-efficient than modern ones.
@trinityhydra2687
4 жыл бұрын
Likely due to them having evolved for much much longer. Mammals have only been the dominant species for about 50 millions years (since they wouldn’t become dominant right after the dinosaurs died, and had competition). While dinosaurs and pterosaurs had much more time.
When I was a little kid and learned about pterosaurs, I thought they were cool. Now, after I watched this video as an adult, I realize they are even cooler than I thought!
So glad this came out, my pet kitten died today and this cheered me up a lot , thank you very much :)
@imapigeonyoupeasant1489
4 жыл бұрын
what a tragedy
@BenGThomas
4 жыл бұрын
I'm so sorry, that's awful! I'm glad we could help you in any way.
@shriyanv4407
4 жыл бұрын
I'm sure it is happier now, F in the chat
@shriyanv4407
4 жыл бұрын
I'm sorry to ask, but when will you be making vids?
@davidmcwilliams717
4 жыл бұрын
unicorn guy , my computer at the moment is very slow, slowly but surely when I upgrade it I will start cracking.
9:02 "These pterosaurs were well-suited to living on the ground..." But only in the context of being able to fly, as in being able to quickly and efficiently find and reach food resources, such as a freshly dead body, or being able to quickly and efficiently escape predators. As for secondarily flightless pterosaurs, I have yet to see a convincing argument for a sustainable ecological niche for such a fragile creature in a world already dominated by very large and very robust dinosaurs. Only a Mesozoic Galapagoes scenario works for flightless pterosaurs.
I'm no expert on either aerodynamics or biology, but wouldn't the fact that they had such a huge head on the end of a long neck have destabilized them in flight? Did the studies have an explanation for this? Not trying to debunk or anything, just curious.
@zennyfieldster4220
4 жыл бұрын
AlphaOmega925 I think he covered this in the last video, but not while in flight. I had this thought while they were on the ground before but I remember him saying there was a study saying it works.
@AlphaOmega925
4 жыл бұрын
Thanks for the replies. Now I'm really curious, so I might go check these studies out.
Me: I need you to tell the difference between this picture *Quetzalcoatlus* and this picture *Azhdcharids* Friend: they're the same picture
The hypothesis that animals with hollow bones, huge wings and matching flight muscles couldn't fly has always seemed Fundementaly flawed to me. Similar to claiming that animals with flukes, streamlined bodies, and nostrils on the tops of their heads couldn't swim.
started re-watching this series of videos about azhdarchids and it really hammers home just how damn weird pterodactyls in general were, like giraffe-sized herons that took off the same way as bats... especially some of the reconstructions of what they looked like alive here, almost reminds me of something you would encounter in particularly whacked out French science fiction comics from the 1970's
So with the right technology, we humans should totally be able to build a flying apparatus that works exactly like a Azhdarchid. That's damn cool to think about in my opinion.
Those magnificant beasts definitly diserve a third installment! Great job 👍
That was awesome, see you guys next year for part 3!
I don’t how people can argue that these pterosaurs couldn’t fly, like why would they keep such developed wings if they couldn’t fly, it would just be a waste of resources, no?
@blkgardner
4 жыл бұрын
Pterosaurs were quadrupeds. So, even if they were flightless, they would still retain wings, as the wings are simply the front "legs".
@trinityhydra2687
4 жыл бұрын
blkgardner that only explains them keeping the limbs, not the wings themselves. And they did have the wings, which are massive energy sinks, taking a lot of resources to be made.
@psychotophatcat
4 жыл бұрын
@@trinityhydra2687 Well, can ostriches fly? They use their wings for balance and display. Maybe that would be the case with azhdarchid too.
@trinityhydra2687
4 жыл бұрын
psychotophatcat the issue with that is the wings have become much much smaller in ostriches and ostriches are bipedal, which means they can bring their wings out for stability. Since Azdarchids are quadrupeds they cannot bring their wings out to use for stability while moving around, that and their body plan doesn’t seem fit for doing that as such stability would only be used for running. And these giant pterosaurs would only be needing speed on take off, as they walk for most of the other time looking for small prey to eat. Azdarchids if they couldn’t fly would have evolutionary pressure to remove their wings and instead change their for limbs to legs instead, likely removing the muscles required for flapping, likely keeping the take off ones just for bursts of speed if need be.
@blkgardner
4 жыл бұрын
@@trinityhydra2687 The wing and the limb are one and the same structure. The wing of a pterosaur is "good enough" for terrestrial locomotion, and the same muscles powering flight also powered terrestrial movement. Unlike in birds, the wings in a hypothetical flightless pterosaur are not vestigial structures, and in fact are necessary for moving on land. Over time, there could be changes to pterosaur front limb morphology if the lineage was flightless for a long period of time. However, the basic body plan could, and probably would stay the same.
Made my evening - thank you!
waited for this part for so long... Thank you!
Finally! I’ve been waiting for this video for what seemed like forever!
HAHA, WOW, I just watched the 1st part last week; it's a real treat for you to upload this now (for me, lol) nice work, as always!
Yes u finally made part 2! :)
Great to see the second part of this fascinating video!
Wow!!! This is absolutely amazing!! Thank you!
Incredibly interesting! Thanks for the great work!
Ooh, part 2. Thank you.
Well worth the wait. For me, only as long as part one! Great!
As I've been revisiting past videos (such as this one) and submitting captions, it has helped with reconnecting to passions I've thought were lost.
It was worth the waiting. Just awesome facts. Love your Channel and the work behind it.
Finally! Been waiting for this
Great vid 👍🏻
great work , Thanx for all your efforts, it must take years of research to get this far! Love this stuff
Finally 🙂 Good video as always
Hooray!! I never thought this was coming back, I honestly forgot about it until now lol Nice work as always 😁👍
I watched the first part yesterday, so glad I missed the wait
i loved your videos !!
Well done, Sir. Your logic is sound and your presentation is always engaging.
Yep, awesome video again 👍.
6:29 Dang just the image of one of these giants moving at that speed is incredible. Like the only flying organism that would be faster than them would be Rodan. Then again his a not really bio volcanic supersonic flyer. Actually that would be interesting what would it take for creatures like that to evolve. Also big fan of the pale art of the week idea.
@fishyfishyfishy500akabs8
4 жыл бұрын
Fang golden eagles and many other birds can match them in flight speed and even fly faster
@fang609
4 жыл бұрын
@@fishyfishyfishy500akabs8 O yea I kinda forgot about them. My mistake.
@fishyfishyfishy500akabs8
4 жыл бұрын
It’s okay, it’s hard to picture a Golden eagle flying at 200 km/ph too
can't wait for the next episode next year!
Finally! Thank you!
AWESOME! Your didatics are perfect!
A part 3!? Yaaaaayyyy!!!!!! I love Azhdarchids ❤
I subbed to this channel so I wouldn’t miss the part 2, and it is finally here!!!! Don’t worry, I am staying subbed. Keep up the great work!!!
Im amazed by your channel keep up your amazing work ❤😊
Hi keep on the good work
@DavidGarcia-oi5nt
4 жыл бұрын
Hi, go fuck yourself
Great channel! Just found you on my feed and I'm hooked. 👍👍👍
It took a year and 6 days for part 2... Worth it.
Well Ben, better be late than never. Well done!
i forgot I was waiting for this video lol
THANK YOU!!!!!
The one question everyone really wants answered though, if we Jurassic Parked these guys to life, could you ride one and have it still capable of flying?
Holy shit I read the title as Arachnids. Now that would have been interesting! Cool video though man, as cool as these animals are it's even better to learn the science behind it all! 💎
Good video
Very interesting analysis of interesting facts, based on recent findings.
Most interesting dinosaur. Can't wait for part 3☝
I love the video, Pterosaurus are so fascinating Thank you for teacher me.
Fantastic
A video for my 'Paleontology' AND 'Biophysics' playlists, thanks!
Watching an animal the height of a giraffe spring 40 feet into the air then start flapping away must have been weird looking. The idea of azhdarchids being unable to fly at all makes no sense when you consider that a lot them lived alongside medium to large sized theropods. Highly doubt Quetzalcoatlus was going to be outrunning a Dakotaraptor.
@melvinshine9841
4 жыл бұрын
@Mullerornis Height wise, Quetzalcoatlus was much larger, but even with the conservative estimates a Dakotaraptor would've been heavier. If Dakota was a pack hunter, emphasis on "if", Quetzalcoatlus wouldn't have had any real defense. If a Quetzalcoatlus couldn't fly it would have no chance against a T.rex.
These animals viewed from the front are god damn horrifying and I love it
Watched part 1 like month ago and from comments thought you've just forgotten about it, I'm glad I was wrong.
I think the quad takeoff model can explain how a fictional wyvern can reach some of the sizes they're depicted as while still being capable of flight
I read that book. Great book.
At long last. Thank you!
Remember the atmosphere went 180 miles into space in those days. The oxygen rich environment allowed dinosaurs to move. Brontosaurus had nostrils the same size as a horse.
That's so interesting!
4:47 Epic picture!
Me: I have nothing good to watch today. Ben: Hold my dinosaur.
Would love to see a computer rendered animation of what a flying Azhdarchid would look like in motion....
The artwork at 2:05 (which, by the way, is truly amazing) brought me to an additional idea of how a takeoff might have been managed: On a plain or a cliff or any other heightened point these animals could have just used their wings like a sail or a modern kite to take-off. This would be very energy-conservating and still pretty effective. Just put your beak against the wind, spread your wings and wait for the air current to lift you up.
Brilliant work love ur videos
I am absolutely astonished by azdarchids. The SIZE, I can only imagine SEEING that in the air
Paeleoart of the week sound exciting!
very interesting video about how pterasaurs took flight. hopefully in the next video, we will see how diverse these creatures were.
Finally, i thought you've abandoned the series
Clicked so fast! Finally!
9 views, 14 likes? Ben G Thomas has broken the internet!
@Grunt_007
4 жыл бұрын
Views only count when you have watched a certain proportion of the video, but likes count instantly so.....
@mostlymattmostly6424
4 жыл бұрын
@@Grunt_007 Even the replies here are educational, thanks!
@zerentheunskilled
4 жыл бұрын
@@mostlymattmostly6424 KZread also doesn't update that stuff in real time. That would just be an insane undertaking with how many users and videos there are. New videos tend to show that the most, which is why you will see videos with 600 likes, 40 views, and dozens of comments within 5 minutes of posting. The old 301 views error was also because of that not being in real time.
@Thulgore
4 жыл бұрын
I'm not being condescending, this has been an issue and spoken about for over a decade. You're not new to the observation, it's just how it works. KZread used to actually pay content creators too.......they cut that by a lot and amped up the ads you'll witness too. They give you similar shit (they didn't make) pay the people who make it less then they used to get for the same content and advertise far more. I love the open access to very good information, hate how greedy it became towards the shareholders.
@mostlymattmostly6424
4 жыл бұрын
SO GLAD ALL OF YOU KNOW WHAT SARCASM IS
I knew it. When one watches nature function one notices that plants and animals do impossible things for no good reason. Quetzal had plenty of reason to fly. Thanks for this.
What? 100 km/h? That's absolutely insane.
Not bad chap, good show.
Waiting.... j/k very nice :)
I'm new to your channel.. interesting video