It's never too late to bet on Spinosaurus

@dan_asd

Ай бұрын

The sail was used for sailing winds in the sky

@sizanogreen9900

Ай бұрын

@@dan_asd they spun around like crazy and basically flew like a helicopter using their sail and tail. Truly a majestic miracle of nature.

@boxbino

Ай бұрын

No they used fart propulsion

@jensphiliphohmann1876

Ай бұрын

Probably way too heavy.

@sizanogreen9900

Ай бұрын

​@@jensphiliphohmann1876 You may think that, but because of the extremely efficient muscle structure recently reconstructed by scientists we know that Spinosaurs could in fact lift their weight into the air.

I've said it once and I'll say it again: giant azhdarchids are perfect horror material. Just imagine seeing a giraffe-sized creature galloping towards you and trying to run from it, only for the creature to suddenly start flying after you

@znail4675

Ай бұрын

They would also easily outrun you as well making flying not even needed. The main reason to fear them would be that humans would snack sized.

@robertkelleyroth409

Ай бұрын

I was thinking along similar lines. Put them in the next Jurassic Park movie!

@grahamstrouse1165

Ай бұрын

Hatzegopteryx’s head is about the same length as a large bull shark. And its neck suggests that it was well-constructed for trashing and ripping.

@chir0pter

Ай бұрын

@@grahamstrouse1165 nah it's still going to swallow prey whole. Beaks are rather weak compared to teeth and jaws, let alone beaks that lightly built

@declanward6888

Ай бұрын

Mate, if you have ever read Primitive War, those pterosaurs are terrifying. Took out a whole platoon without being hit and killed a bunch of Karposuchus. Trust me those things wouldn't just be an antagonist they would be terrifying.

This is very much Quetzalcoatlus vs. Hatzegopteryx

@tonegreen82

Ай бұрын

Po

@blooddrainedsoul-0192

Ай бұрын

Long live the feathered serpent!

@victzegopterix2victorindem895

Ай бұрын

Hatz' wins ez though.

@frankmaynes3608

Ай бұрын

Indeed it is, both Pterosaurs are almost the same size.

@Ankan637

Ай бұрын

What about Arambourgiania?

Man arent azhdarchids just the coolest things ever?

@ImMimicute

Ай бұрын

It's absurd how this statement is based entirely on opinion and yet is borderline infallible

@risky_busine55

Ай бұрын

Yes

@elliot_rat

19 күн бұрын

this needs to be the one thing wholly agreed upon by every human alive

It’s worthy to note that pterosaur wings are not the simple leathery membrane as in bats. Their wings are much, much more complex than that, and more akin to biological plane wings than membranes on bones. It was discovered that giant pterosaurs have thick wings which are highly vascular with complex air chambers connected to the bones. The bones themselves contain pneumatic channels which leads to their lungs. Not only that their wings were thicker and much more durable than just simple membranes, they could also adjust the shape and thickness of their wings in order to aid them better during flight. They had by far the most complex and optimized wing morphology and flight technique of all flying vertebrates. That’s why they could afford to evolve such a large size without sacrificing their capability of flight.

@znail4675

Ай бұрын

Quite interesting, but that was not the only reason. It was touched on in the video, but the key feature of using the same muscle groups for land locomotion and flight makes them scale up in size better then birds.

@benmcreynolds8581

Ай бұрын

This is a great set of details to think about and consider. Fossils give us so much but I also wish we weren't so limited due to the fossil record

@b.a.erlebacher1139

Ай бұрын

Bat wings are not just "simple leathery membranes". They are very flexible and full of muscle fibers which gives bats aerial manoeuverability unmatched by birds. Bats have reduced their weight by having very little muscle in the legs. They can't stand, so rest hanging upside down, and launch by flapping then letting go with their feet. The main thing that keeps bats small is probably the mammalian respiratory system that is inferior to the one way system with air sacs in every place possible that works so well for birds, and for dinosaurs and pterosaurs.

@mhdfrb9971

Ай бұрын

​@@b.a.erlebacher1139Pterosaurs got really lucky in that they combined the advantages of birds (extremely efficient respiration and weight savings thanks to being heavily pneumatized) and bats (quadrupedal launch, more effective control over flight surface due to wings being composed of thin sheets of muscle, though bats took this even further by also using their finger joints), lacking the disadvantages of either.

@firytwig

Ай бұрын

While they did have pneumatized bones in their arms, they were not connected to the overall repiratory system.

I gotta give props to Prehistoric Planet for getting me interested in Azhdarchids. Such a fascinating group of animals that I’d completely missed out on!

"Cold Dragon of the Northern Winds" - Azdharchids really have some of the most poetic names in modern palaeontology. 😊

@nyeti7759

Ай бұрын

That said, to my mind Thanatosdrakon is just trying a bit too hard 😅

@princesseville6889

Ай бұрын

There has to be a metal album out There with that title lol, fits perfectly!

@sandrastreifel6452

Ай бұрын

@@nyeti7759Tell the DEATHDRAGON that while it’s chasing you! Either “the Azdharchids” or “Thanatosdrakon” would be epic metal band names!

@bkjeong4302

Ай бұрын

Hatzegopteryx thambena means “monstrous wing of Hateg”, too.

"cold dragon of the north winds" is the most metal dinosaur title ive ever heard

In the 80s, Paul MacReady built a 1/2 scale Quetzalcoatlus model and flew it around. The Smithsonian created an IMAX film about it titled "On the Wing" and I recall it being in the Smithsonian collection when I was a kid. National Geographic did several stories about it. Even at half scale it was incredible and beautifully rendered! Sadly it is rarely mentioned today, and the documentary about it isnt even on KZread from what I can see. In the 80s this kind of stuff felt really cutting edge... and while computers can model all kinds of details about an animal's behavior, and movies are fun to watch, they lack the physicality of a working model. It would be incredible to actually watch a full scale one flap around! Sigh. Also, great that Your Dinosaurs Are Wrong put a Pterosaur video up today too!

@20thCenturyMeerkat

Ай бұрын

They also filmed it for David Attenborough’s ‘Lost World Vanished Lives’, if that helps your search!

@patreekotime4578

Ай бұрын

​@@20thCenturyMeerkat for some reason YT wont let me respond. Grrr. Thank you! I found it about thirty mins into the second episode called Putting Flesh on Bone. Very cool.

@WaterShowsProd

Ай бұрын

I remember that. If I recall correctly it was when so many were saying that they couldn't have been able to fly. I even remember as a kid being told things like pterosaurs went extinct because they could only take to the air by jumping off cliffs. Utterly ridiculous, of course.

@WaterShowsProd

Ай бұрын

And I love Your Dinosaurs Are Wrong.

@patreekotime4578

Ай бұрын

@@WaterShowsProd I mean, theres someone arguing that in these comments. Sigh.

Imagine having a picnic in the park and one of these guys eclipses the sun for a split second. That'd be quite a jump scare.

@znail4675

Ай бұрын

More then a scare as you would be likely to end up as the snack of someone else's picnic.

@GandalfTheTsaagan

Ай бұрын

And then YOU become the picnic

@UltimatePerfection

22 күн бұрын

​​@@GandalfTheTsaaganIf they have had as thin necks as in the pictures, not likely since you wouldn't even go past the throat. Of course getting pecked all the way to the conclusion of your existence is always an option.

Imagine an azdarchid as tall as Quetzalcoatlus, but as robust and heavy as Hatzegopteryx.

@Gloriousturtlechan

Ай бұрын

Please no I am already afraid enough.

@richie_0740

Ай бұрын

That's just... Fr just Hatzegopteryx Cause both are pretty much the same size, just that Hatzegopteryx is much MUCH more robust

@beastmaster0934

Ай бұрын

@@richie_0740 Last time I checked, Quetzal was taller but lighter, while Hatz was shorter yet more robust.

@richie_0740

Ай бұрын

@@beastmaster0934 only a slightly shorter yet more robust neck, but else it's the same size in anatomy, hatz was the heavier one with more powerful beak

Entomologists have the best sense of humour in the field of zoology if you ask me.

@Crembaw

Ай бұрын

What about the dude that named something crocodile crocodile?

@kearsargeyt8848

Ай бұрын

@@Crembaw he was on cracks when he thought of sebecosuchia

@raiderxs1570

Ай бұрын

See again the spider species Han solo

@macro_the_acro1736

Ай бұрын

I have a few... Phthiria relativitae (Pronounced Theory o' relativity), a fly, Agra vation (beetle, plenty in that genus), the fly genus Pieza (has Pieza kake, Pieza pi, Pieza rhea, and Pieza dereistans), the beetles named Binburrum zapdos, B. moltres, and B. articuno, the wasp Aha ha, or A. ha, Ba humbugi (snail), Colon forceps (beetle, plenty more in that genus too), Eubetia bigaulae ( pronounced You betcha', by golly, moth), and last one for now, Hakuna matata (wasp)

@Pikkugen

Ай бұрын

I know an entomologist couple, and the husband named a spider species after his wife. (The wife was very much flattered, btw.)

17:51 The artist literally painted it like the Canadian Flag, complete with a Red Maple Leaf on it's back! 🤨

@laurobernardo7807

Ай бұрын

Looks really cool

@b.a.erlebacher1139

Ай бұрын

Yup, a real Canadian pterosaur!

@bugjams

26 күн бұрын

Fossil-fighters-ass looking design 😂

@DrDeuteron

13 күн бұрын

🇨🇦

Titanopteryx is such a cool name for giraffe sized flying reptile only for it to turn out to be a name for fly

I should be noted that birds took over as big flying things only after pterosaurs went extinct, so bats getting bigger is probably hindered by birds already occupying those ecological niches where they have had much longer time to evolve to bigger sizes and therefore would outcompete big bats, so there is no room for bats to evolve to bigger sizes. Also all the really big ones have been carnivores. Biggest bat is herbivore. I suspect that would need to change in order to it getting bigger. Fruits just are not efficient enough food source for big active flyer. And then you have entirely new set of animals to compete with.

@NinaFelwitch

Ай бұрын

Imagine terrorbird sized flightless bats 😲

17:52 Of course the Canadian pterosaur is depicted with a big red maple leaf on its back.

I like the fact that the largest Azhdarchids were toothless Pterasaurs, whilst the largest birds had 'teeth'. Both Archosaurs too, far surpassing mammals or insects in size on the land and in the air. We got the oceans though...unless those pesky Icthyosaurs take that from us haha.

@EnderCreeper168

23 күн бұрын

"32 meter long Mosasaur discovered" Can you imagine?

I don't understand judging the largest Azdarkids by their wingspans. In science, when we talk about 'largest' creatures, we always mean mass. That's why T-rex is considered larger than Spinosaurus despite Spinosaurs being longer. Therefore, since Hatzegopterix is the heaviest Azdarkid, this means that it is the largest flying animal of all time that we know of thus far.

@rubric-eo5yj

15 күн бұрын

it is kinda difficult to say because things such as cryodrakon might have been larger than both and the avg weight of hatzeg and quetz is pretty much the same

So the neural tube in the middle of the vertebra is insanely cool.

I talked to a palaeontologist who specialised in the early evolution of birds and apparently flight or at least gliding evolved in dinosaurs 4 separate times. (2 of which were powered)

At least the palaeontologists were allowed to actually rename it this time, instead of the entomologists swooping in and calling it 'big dumb lizard'.

@jensphiliphohmann1876

Ай бұрын

Not "dumb" but "dead": Megapnosaurus ("bid dead lizard") had originally been named _Syntarsus_ which had already been given to a beatle, and _Megapnosaurus_ as a name was supposedly a joke.

@fernbedek6302

Ай бұрын

@@jensphiliphohmann1876 It had been a couple of years since I'd looked at the story... I was *close* at least.

I'm 36 and ever since I was 8 years old I've been completely fascinated by these group of animals (pterosaurs). As a kid I used to be so upset they were not used in the old Jurassic Park movies. Their variety, size, weird shape and ability to get off the ground...unbelievable. So underrated though😢

Pterosaurs are my favourite not-dinosaurs. My cockatoo, Angel, is my favourite dinosaur!

tnx for this amazing video essey! I'd love to see a more detailed one about giant birds, flying and flightless! 🤗

i love that these guys are just like. theyre just dragons. dragons are real and theyre just dinosaurs they dont breathe fire but they could and would Eat You (and probably be ridden?)

you know, i wish we had more megafauna. i so desperately want to see airplane sized creatures still flying in the sky.

Excellent video. I’m I’ve been super curious about these crazy fellas for years now. They’re quickly becoming my favorite type of prehistoric monater

Oh this is easy its the The Bee Hummingbird.

I find fascinating how little we know about the world... I wish I could travel in time to actually see how these things actually looked like

Thanatosdrakon has the best name, this dragon of death was awesome!

I love this video, things that fly just take my breath away. I would love to see an Azhdarchid in real life, from a safe distance!!! One small correction, the most recent DNA analysis found that the Teratorns and the rest of the New World Vultures are actually the most basal family of Accipitrimorphae rather than relatives of storks. Dinosaurs science is dinosaur science I guess.

This is going to be an excellent video; I can already tell! I look forward to sitting down and watching the full thing when I get a chance. Edit: I realized the video has accurate subtitling and so was able to watch it right after I left this comment, and I was correct, it was a great video! Very interesting and informative. Thank you to the Ben G Thomas team for having one of the best paleo-education channels out there!

The fact that to me seeing the ancient griffenflys irl would be one of the most terrifying things ever and then he’s like they’d be magnificent creatures to have seen just really puts it into my brain how much more scared of bugs I am than I think

Birds are wicked things. A racing pigeon was clocked at an average of 90 mph ... for over 400 miles? The Peregrine falcon has been clocked at 240 mph. The fastest animal in the world was sitting on my hedge the other day. Wow.

Great video. Very interesting. It is quite impressive how you so easily and effortlessly pronounce such long and difficult words so quickly.

The amount of scientific names already taken by entomologists really must make other ecologists and paleontologists shake their fists at them 😂

My favorite animals ever! Thank you for this video!

Interesting how they made the one from Canada look like a Canadian flag.

Even ignoring volaticotheres powered flight evolved several times among dinosaurs like Microraptor, Rahonavis and seemingly Caudipteryx (which evolved from flying ancestors). So flight evolved multiple times

Salute from Utah paleontology museum where I volunteer. Thanks Ben.

Quetzalcoatlus is so cool, its neck is _tubular_ and its proportions are _radical_

So, the wingspan of a private jet. Wow

If they were flightless, why would they have giant wing fingers? You'd expect that to disappear very quickly in evolutionary time.

@mexcore14

Ай бұрын

Wing cost too many evolutionary points. Once they lose their function they become vestigial, or are transformed into something else. I agree with you. Big flying lizards were not flightless.

Thanks for the insights Ben. I Hope are you having great day if you read this and if not, I hope it gets better soon.

Vertebrate flight arose at least 4 times that we know of. Sharovipterygidae was another, earlier, clade of flying reptile, unrelated to the later flying reptiles like pterosaurids.

Here in Bangkok I often see flying foxes, both small species and larger ones-though not quite as large as the one found in The Philippines. The big ones are truly magnificent to see flying around.

I suspect that the Earth’s atmosphere was slightly thicker, the climate was warmer and land being mostly together in one hemisphere led to strong coastal winds meaning that large flying animals could use the winds to fly.

The unusual names combined with the way you talk truly makes all of this sound like some ancient lord of the rings lore or smth

Amazing creatures, thanks.

Smthn interesting is I have a scifi story from 2009 that basically says in the story that pterosaurs- esp giant pterosaurs- could only get aloft with a midday thermal or headwind. It's amazing how our understanding of these ancient creatures has increased in only about a decade. I look forward to what the future holds

Eyyy! Greetings from the Philippines! We got those gigantic flying foxes here in my place. They eat the ripest of our mangoes. You'll see big fruits that are half eaten on the ground, which is their calling card.

Those things would be pretty scary to meet in real life, they could swallow most people whole

Majestic work

This video is a credit to you well done it was fantastic

Great episode

I don't understand 75% of what you say as I don't know much Latin or dinosaur names, but your voice makes these videos great to sleep to. Thanks :)

Maybe one day WonderArtisticModels will make an Ichthyosaur!

Can't wait for video games to add Dracula and other azdarchids

Biggest flying thing ever? That would be my grandmas chancla flying into my face

how do you get to the books behind the fossils on the shelf?

It fascinates me to no end that excluding insects........you can mimic all the other flyers bones that they use with your own human hand. Those three are distinctly different too.

I know from a size disparity sheet that it mentions a specimen called the Merignon Azhdarchid. Is there any more information behind it?

@robrice7246

Ай бұрын

Same with a forgotten Google or Excel spreadsheet that mentioned various undescribed azhdarchid specimens.

29:17 Couldn't it just be as mammals don't have bones that are nearly as hollow like birds or pterosaurs

Evolution is so interesting, it's absolutely crazy that the largest animal capable of powered flight has basically converged on the body plan of a GIRAFFE, it makes absolutely no sense and I absolutely love it 😂

Cryodrakon Boraes is the coolest name even

It should be mentioned that air density was 3 times higher back then allowing for much greater lift and non of them would be able to fly in todays atmosphere. If we still had 3 times the air density we would likely have similar sized birds now as larger wings are more efficient.

@mhdfrb9971

Ай бұрын

There are "theories", but I've searched around and there isn't really any credible evidence for that. Sure, the atmosphere could've been a bit thicker or thinner but not significantly so. I mean where would the extra atmosphere have come from? Sure, you could add a lot of water vapor, but then the Earth would have to be so hot it could barely have any life on it. And it just wasn't that hot in cretaceous. Hasn't been for billions of years. CO2 from volcanos and such don't add anything significant next to the entire atmosphere either, we're still just talking parts per million. Also, can't really compare pterosaurs to birds since they had different morphology and there's nothing like them alive today.

@eduardbass839

Ай бұрын

@@mhdfrb9971 There is credible evidence and science papers on Air pressure during the Jurassic. "Atmospheric Pressure at the Time of Dinosaurs" Chemical Engineering Department Oregon State University

@bugjams

26 күн бұрын

3 times thicker? No, that's simply preposterous. It could have been denser, but not by _3 times._

Still blows my mind that *75% of terrestrial animals fly or descend from flying ancestors.* It means flight is the _default_ ability on land.

@bugjams

26 күн бұрын

Really, it's more like _bugs_ are the default type of animal. It's simply more efficient to be small and numerous, so of course insects make up the majority of complex animals on land. It's only because of them that larger, more complex and power-hungry animals could form.

1:09 DID YOU JUST SAY ROMANIAN?!!?! HE SAID ROMANIAN WOOOOOOOOOO

Great video

Very informative and very well put together. These creatures would have needed lots of oxygen was there a higher oxygen ratio in their time? Thankyou

The answers I look for are more in where and how the flight muscles attach to the central body. I see a broad breast plate, but the angle looks wrong for large muscle attachment (as opposed to the keel found in the chest of birds)

I am curious what the maximum size of birds during the mesozoic was, as it may simply be niche partitioning keeping bats smaller at present.

@Ben G Thomas I remember watching you guys when you had a small channel, it has been a pleasure watching you grow. I am absolutely loving the long ones. At 50 I am learning so much still, thank you so much. Btw, in October, NASA will finally send the ship to Europa to test for the chemicals which will identify if there are signs of life! It’s about time, it’s been delayed for so many years. Too bad they won’t go to Enceladus but that’s okay because if there are signs of life through chemical readings, regardless of the fact it will be microbial, it’s still life! To find life in our own solar system will be huge, they believe there may be life in many places in our solar system. That means if life has started at least 3 times now (mars) that it wasn’t just a random thing to happen to only us. I know aliens but this should sway a few more people and an amazing discovery. If not, let’s go check Enceladus.

lol i met ibrahim at the why dinosaurs premier in hollywood, nice to see a familiar face

Fascinating Animals!

Ejderha means "dragon" in Turkey, Iran etc. Azhdarkho = Ejderha

Love your shirt

He really said those bugs would be marvelous animals to see in life

I believe the wings were actually for cooling down and for attracting fish to the shade of their wings, in order to catch them, which would also explain their long neck to catch fish before they could get away. That's what herons and egrets do, plus their bills are shaped the same as these things.

Omfg I didn’t notice the toucan shirt first but the similarity in the beak is inspiring to say the least.

i refused to believe that there's a pterosaur as tall as a giraffe until the release of Walking with Dinosaurs 3D since then, that pterosaur become my favourite

I could be mistaken, but with the increased oxygen in the atmosphere in the Cretaceous, wouldn’t the air also be denser, meaning comparisons to bird flight aren’t appropriate? Pterosaurs probably could generate lift very quickly, especially launching near sea level.

Never have I stopped a video before in order to hectically go to a wood puzzle site and buy dinosaur skeletons. Well, there's a first time for everything I guess!

somehow i read the title as "what is the most funny animal ever" and i don't think the answer even changed

Chile mentioned? La weá weona

Battle of the Azdarchids

Alfred hitchcock the birds reimagined with Griffinflies and me screeching

Honestly, it's good that there are no dragons on this planet. Imagine this going after you, but in addition to the wings it also has four clawed limbs and can breathe fire.

Boy this chap knows his stuff!

First :) Thanks for being a great youtuber man I get alot of my dino knowledge from you lol>

Peggy hill.

any time i feel like a nerd i'll just watch this for ten seconds again

Sail planes with 15-20 m wingspans have stall speed around 60 kph with max takeoff weights up to 800 kgs. Paragliders stall speed is 25 kph with take-off weights 120 kgs. Wind gradient above surface means 10 m above ground wind speed might be double that compared to ground. A rearing aztarchid can probably get its wing tips near that high. In weaker winds it could just take a few running steps, use stored elastic energy and fast twitch muscle contraction to jump off the ground. Pterosaur wing surface area increases squared (I guess somewhat less) compared to wing span. Pterosaurs certainly were capable of higher performance than even the best glider aircraft today, probably beating paragliders. If they lived in coastal areas, e.g. islands, windy conditions were usually present. I think we can make a safe assumption that there is no definite upper limit to aztarchid size in terms of flight capability, and limits were set by other factors, namely metabolic requirements or possibly over heating due to high wing surface area catching sun, which might be one reason favoring horizontally thin body shapes and narrow wings. Should be noted that pterosaur "fur" would help insulate the wings. If there were air sacs inside the wings, air in them would expand when heated, helping to form a perfect wing shape and creating a supporting structure (think like a balloon animal), decreasing need for slow twitch flying muscles - enabling more fast twitch "launch" muscles.

5:55. Oh yeah Ben, whisper that in my ear. 😉

I just got the idea for the "Three Spinosaur Moon" shirt, but I'll never do it, so someone please steal it.

So quetz is that one kid that was just abnormally tall, and hatz was the kid who was tall AND chonky

Thought he said with invertebrates not within vertebrates there for a second and was confused

Thank you for teaching us how to pronounce these things.

Think it was The Budget Museum (wish he would post more!) who mentioned a while back that there is some (flimsy) evidence that there was a third group of animals that may have been at least on the verge of flight. They were mammals, like bats, but an entirely different family - possible a mustelid. Always found it fascinating to think about that. They wouldn't have been much larger than bats, so no competitions for these huge reptiles!

Chile represent with those beautiful 3D models 💪