How Did Giant Pterosaurs Fly?

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  • čas přidán 28. 05. 2024
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    The largest pterosaurs like Quetzalcoatlus were closer in size to airplanes than birds. No flying animal alive today comes close to their huge size. So did giant pterosaurs actually fly? I went to see the fossil bones of the largest pterosaur that ever lived so I could learn how these winged giants actually took to the skies.
    Special thanks:
    Michael Habib, Ph.D. / aeroevo
    Matthew Brown/University of Texas Vertebrate Paleontology Collection
    References: sites.google.com/view/giant-p...
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Komentáře • 2K

  • @evansokolson9221
    @evansokolson9221 Před 3 lety +462

    Human: I’ve got a ring finger
    Pterosaur: Ha, I’ve got a wing finger

  • @niklasschmidt3610
    @niklasschmidt3610 Před 4 lety +2738

    Pterosaurs be like: Chest day every day.

  • @ophereon
    @ophereon Před 4 lety +458

    "There's a Quetzalcoatlus circling, I'm sorry we can't go outside today, it might eat the kids."
    Meanwhile New Zealand just 600 years ago: "There's a Haast's Eagle circling, I'm sorry we can't go outside today, it might eat the kids."

    • @cl4655
      @cl4655 Před 3 lety +3

      @uncletigger how can it be exaggerated speculation when we have actual proof of it being 8m compared to the mere 2m of the Haast’s eagle?

    • @f1rebreather123
      @f1rebreather123 Před 3 lety +1

      @uncletigger it's still believed to be the largest, around 5-7m in length. The humorous alone was the size of a human arm, a little under a meter

    • @OpenRoader
      @OpenRoader Před 3 lety +14

      Meanwhile in Australia today, "a dingo ate my baby!"

    • @carpetmagic5713
      @carpetmagic5713 Před 3 lety +3

      funny thing is that somebody 600 yrs ago might have said that

    • @RagnarokLoW
      @RagnarokLoW Před 3 lety +3

      dont eagles still snatch toddlers in Africa from time to time?

  • @KayentaRojo
    @KayentaRojo Před 4 lety +71

    I friggin love pterosaurs. one of the most amazing animals that have ever lived.

  • @TheKidOfOnions
    @TheKidOfOnions Před 4 lety +2215

    What I learned from this: bats have the potential to be giraffe-sized flying mammals.

    • @noahmccann4438
      @noahmccann4438 Před 3 lety +208

      I was looking for a comment about this. I was wondering what holds them back? It would seem ideal for them to get larger, because heat loss is a big problem for smaller mammals. Well that led me to do some quick searching, and they lack the hollow bones of birds - they solved the weight problem by slimming their bones down, making them lighter but also more fragile. So that might be a limiting factor. I seem to recall that bats and birds approach waste management differently, with birds having low water content in their waste to reduce weight, while bats are more similar to other mammals - with vampire bats sometimes peeing while eating to keep their weight down (and also to maximize the nutrition they get). Some capabilities of bats might also be wasted by getting larger - perhaps echolocation isn’t useful if your prey is above a certain size. All that said - it would be easier for a bat to solve those problems via evolution than for a bird to develop a similar launching method, so perhaps with the right environmental factors driving them we would have giraffe sized bats one day. What a scary (but awesome) thought!

    • @Rupcoris
      @Rupcoris Před 3 lety +96

      @@noahmccann4438 it's because of the same reason mamals were small and weak during the dinosaur era. birds are dinosaurs so it's kinda like bats are stuck in that same position. also birds occupy the ecological niches of "big" flying things and they're very good at it, so as long as birds keep that position bats have no chance of getting bigger. of course the're must be a lot other factors involved but those are the ones i could think of

    • @nedaraid3372
      @nedaraid3372 Před 3 lety +51

      All interesting points in the comments but the more probable explanation is because mammals have heavier bones including bats.
      The hollow bones are what let dinosaurs and pterosaurs get to their giant size.

    • @Rupcoris
      @Rupcoris Před 3 lety +4

      Richmond Espinosa yeah, but they’re hunted by an even bigger bird, the philippine eagle xD

    • @drenrin2120
      @drenrin2120 Před 3 lety +28

      It's a pretty interesting thought experiment to wonder what bats may look like in 40 million years, but as has been pointed out, they'd have to overcome their bone density problems and wait for a niche to open up that encourages gigantism as an adaptation. That kind of implies another extinction event which means they'd have to also survive that event in order to have a chance of taking over any niches left behind by birds.
      Given the amazing myriad of ways in which life has diversified on Earth, I don't think it's impossible if all the right things were to happen.

  • @thebrainscoop
    @thebrainscoop Před 4 lety +1164

    If I had a time machine, heading back to see a flock of these in the air is def. a top priority. WICKED.

    • @besmart
      @besmart  Před 4 lety +254

      But what if they poop?

    • @wholeNwon
      @wholeNwon Před 4 lety +123

      @@besmart Another reason not to look up in awe.

    • @dcarbs2979
      @dcarbs2979 Před 4 lety +44

      @@besmart Would it be like birds (combined solid and liquid excretion) or like land reptiles / mammals, one for solid, one for liquid?

    • @Lucian_Andries
      @Lucian_Andries Před 4 lety +25

      @@besmart You yell "incoming enemy attack!!!!!", then duck for cover... 🤣🤣

    • @RAClaus3
      @RAClaus3 Před 4 lety +50

      @@besmart Honestly, I would be more worried if these giant pterosaurs decided that i looked edible.

  • @JustinLHopkins
    @JustinLHopkins Před 3 lety +72

    “I don’t wanna laugh at Pterosaurs”
    I don’t think they’ll mind at all!

  • @Jukelikesgames
    @Jukelikesgames Před 4 lety +109

    Imagine a Ptersaurs nest and their babies and their nest behavior. Aghhh would be so interesting to see.

  • @dwaynezilla
    @dwaynezilla Před 4 lety +152

    Love the diagrams. "Mad hops" "swole" "in awe at the size of this lad" "absolute unit"
    good for a chuckle

    • @41linestreet
      @41linestreet Před 4 lety +3

      I was looking for this exact comment 😂 thank you

    • @isabellach
      @isabellach Před 2 lety +2

      Have you seen 8:27?

  • @miriam3848
    @miriam3848 Před 4 lety +169

    Birds, are very good jumpers! I have a hooded crow under my care, that had lost one wing. He can jump from the floor right onto a table without any assistance from wings

  • @callmeandoru2627
    @callmeandoru2627 Před 3 lety +134

    Spiecies name: Cryodrakon.
    Me trying to explain it to my 4-year-old cousin: Its a crying dragon

  • @StoneCoolds
    @StoneCoolds Před 3 lety +87

    Imagine the thousands of amazing animals that existed on those peiriods and we will never know

    • @mechwarrior13
      @mechwarrior13 Před 3 lety +8

      It's crazy how most dinosaur/prehistoric species are actually not discovered, and we already have so much information to reconstruct the past.

    • @dv9239
      @dv9239 Před 3 lety +4

      @@mechwarrior13 there might be 4 winged birds like if they flap their legs too
      But they were probably wiped out by the asteroid for being too big even if some smaller species survived what are the odds of it making its journey all through 60 million years and actually getting fossilized for us to discover

    • @caseycat
      @caseycat Před 10 měsíci +1

      I wish there was some way to send a camera drone back in time to see dinosaurs

  • @TheBassManBoy
    @TheBassManBoy Před 4 lety +213

    I appreciate the banana during the wingspan infographic. Really helps with scale.

  • @newtscamander7713
    @newtscamander7713 Před 4 lety +275

    I'm not going to lie, I got super jealous that you got to see those quetzalcoatlus fossils...

    • @mongke8745
      @mongke8745 Před 4 lety +7

      Mr. Scamander, did the pterosaurs have a magical property?

  • @alexandracenuse8762
    @alexandracenuse8762 Před 3 lety +7

    Bring back smol pterosaurs, we need to hold 'em and tell them how precious they are🥺🥺

  • @MINKIN2
    @MINKIN2 Před 3 lety +79

    "You can't argue with the laws of physics"
    Bumble Bee: Hold my beer

    • @Suthriel
      @Suthriel Před 3 lety +4

      There are different ways of creating lift, not just the method, that birds are using ;)

    • @tntbrine5237
      @tntbrine5237 Před 3 lety +22

      According to all known laws
      of aviation, there is no way a bee
      should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get
      its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyway. because bees don't care
      what humans think is impossible.

    • @Suthriel
      @Suthriel Před 3 lety +7

      @@tntbrine5237 Wrong, please update your understanding of the laws of aviation :) They do not fly like birds, they fly like insects. And their wings have the perfect size for that insect flight method. So the question is, why do people still believe, that they violate some laws of aviation, if people try to use methods of birdflight for beings, that do not fly like birds?
      For starters, bee wings work at about 200 Hz, that are about 200 wingbeats per second. I don´t know any bird using similar wingbeat frequencies (not even the hummingbird uses that much)
      Google for insect flight, it´s a really interesting topic.

    • @tntbrine5237
      @tntbrine5237 Před 3 lety +16

      @@Suthriel that's.... just the opening lines of the bee movie.....

    • @Suthriel
      @Suthriel Před 3 lety +8

      @@tntbrine5237 Yeah, unfortunately i have met way to many people, that still take this as truth and believe it ^.^

  • @lermi389
    @lermi389 Před 4 lety +288

    Now I cant decide what would be cooler: seeeing a T-rex biting somethin or seeing the giant pterosaurus take flight

    • @Ammar34567
      @Ammar34567 Před 4 lety +27

      How about a T-rexterosaurus biting something in flight?

    • @ThePigeonBrain
      @ThePigeonBrain Před 4 lety +45

      Giant pterosaurus taking flight, no contest. Biting can only be done in so many ways, and T-rex's teeth look pretty standard. Now a smilodon on the other hand, that might be interesting...

    • @joanduthie1689
      @joanduthie1689 Před 3 lety +1

      ThePigeonBrain Dude sane.

    • @BlackSlimShady
      @BlackSlimShady Před 3 lety +3

      pterosaur

    • @lemonenjoyer6410
      @lemonenjoyer6410 Před 3 lety

      cryodrakon

  • @lucifer1493
    @lucifer1493 Před 4 lety +807

    imagine a dinosaur being the size of an airplane flying above your house and then taking a dump

    • @diamondmoonwolf
      @diamondmoonwolf Před 4 lety +33

      ツLucifer lol, this made my day

    • @The_Bruh_26
      @The_Bruh_26 Před 4 lety +13

      I would have seen it all

    • @VineetSharma1595
      @VineetSharma1595 Před 4 lety +31

      All those airplane poop jokes coming to an end

    • @ashenen2278
      @ashenen2278 Před 4 lety +152

      Pterosaurs AREN'T dinosaurs

    • @suzyfein
      @suzyfein Před 4 lety +12

      It’s dump would be the size of a garbage dump

  • @wtfooqs
    @wtfooqs Před 2 lety +23

    Fun fact: Bird bones aren't hollow to make them lighter. They're hollow so they can store extra air and oxygen needed for powering the bird's op flying muscles.

  • @Dragoevo2
    @Dragoevo2 Před 3 lety +52

    People who play ARK: pathetic, I did not know people were so stupid. THIS IS COMMON KNOWELEDGE!
    (In a russian accent)

    • @hainesgamingyt9500
      @hainesgamingyt9500 Před 3 lety

      True, so true

    • @crimsonholocene949
      @crimsonholocene949 Před 3 lety +1

      Ark’s dinos are inaccurate af

    • @signolias100
      @signolias100 Před 3 lety

      @@crimsonholocene949 not really the utahraptor is fairly accurate. the color schemes might not be but i would think quite a few are accurate as far as their biomechanics are concerned. i mean they even having spino's being more at home in water and predominantly walking on four legs which is now considered the norm

  • @Danilego
    @Danilego Před 4 lety +168

    3:35 I thought the way to fly was:
    1) Throw yourself at the ground
    2) Miss

    • @evelynbrylow3624
      @evelynbrylow3624 Před 4 lety +3

      Did you get that from the SciShow video on weightlessness for astronauts??? Cause that’s where I last saw that comment 😂

    • @tonydai782
      @tonydai782 Před 4 lety +9

      No, that's called orbiting.

    • @kavyon
      @kavyon Před 4 lety +8

      Great reference, bro. Douglas Adams would be proud.

    • @guiorgy
      @guiorgy Před 4 lety +1

      "There hasn't been a plane that has lifted off and not come back to ground!" Don't remember who or where said it, but you'll eventually hit the ground like that...
      SPLAT!

    • @ryangardner4274
      @ryangardner4274 Před 3 lety

      @@guiorgy XD

  • @MungareMike
    @MungareMike Před 4 lety +579

    The reason this flying giant extinct: the males can't afford wedding ring

    • @veganchaatparty
      @veganchaatparty Před 4 lety +2

      Lol....hahahahaha...super true..hahaha

    • @steveletterman7121
      @steveletterman7121 Před 4 lety +5

      yeah, they were christians too, so premarital sex was no option.

    • @MaryAnnNytowl
      @MaryAnnNytowl Před 4 lety +4

      @Sasori Man that varies, depending on the type, style, and greed of the person it is for. Personally, I'm not that in to shiny rocks, so my wedding ring is just made of white gold, with no stones, and the engagement ring just had a couple of small shiny rocks on it (I stopped wearing it when I became a mechanic... too hard to clean grease off of it!). Anyway, all together, our rings cost about $400.
      Other rings, however... depending on the size of the shiny rocks, we could be talking thousands of dollars!

    • @roldiv1574
      @roldiv1574 Před 4 lety +1

      @Chris_Wooden_Eye I have the same too

    • @voornaam3191
      @voornaam3191 Před 4 lety +4

      @@MaryAnnNytowl You mean: too hard to bear the pain, when you loose that beautiful finger.
      As a mechanic, you must NEVER wear any ring, nor chain. Those things have caused enough horrible accidents. Such accidents always surprise you. Be wise, leave all your jewelry at home. You could wear your wedding ring on a chain around your neck, provided that chain breaks before it would strangle you. Safer is, don't take the risk. Most collegues know you are married. A ring is a symbol, but it should not tear off your finger, one day. I thought mechanics had safety management imprinted in their brains. Have you missed the best lesson of the year? This is not a joke, if you care for your fingers, never wear a ring at work. That includes a wedding ring. Other bling bling can also cause serious trouble. Please stay safe.

  • @Desklamp1234
    @Desklamp1234 Před 3 lety +32

    "omg im so sorry to hear that, how did he pass away?"
    "it appears 80kg of excrement landed on his head from a great height, he didn't survive the impact"

  • @lonerwolf6496
    @lonerwolf6496 Před 3 lety +19

    "Stay in the air and get into the air in the first place"
    *me imagining fying roaches

    • @tntbrine5237
      @tntbrine5237 Před 3 lety

      yeah, i hate roach players. their flying skill have some intimidations effect on anyone

    • @am_Nein
      @am_Nein Před 2 lety

      W h a t

  • @nalikepanda4006
    @nalikepanda4006 Před 4 lety +762

    You couldn't hear a pterosaurs peeing.
    Cuz the pee is silent!

  • @besmart
    @besmart  Před 4 lety +341

    Giant pterosaurs are awesome. Who else loves The Brain Scoop and can’t wait to watch Emily’s new show on PBS?! Info about where you can watch it is in the description 🤓
    Oh, and one more thing: Quetzalcoatlus is pronounced “ket-zal-co-WAT-lus” but I have a hard time not saying “kwet-zal-co-WAT-lus” because my mouth is dumb and that Q always gets me. Anyway, now you know!

    • @gregorymalchuk272
      @gregorymalchuk272 Před 4 lety +3

      Please consider doing a video on the evolution of the human foreskin. Thank you

    • @fernandocoag
      @fernandocoag Před 4 lety +9

      i think quetzalcoatlus is also a really cool name, it comes from the Nahuatl (mexican dialect) words quetzal and coatl witch mean feather and snake, meaning the feathered snake, Quetzalcoatl is also the prehispanic god of life, light, fertility, civilization and knowledge... preatty cool IMO

    • @DorthLous
      @DorthLous Před 4 lety

      Reptile???

    • @maxximumb
      @maxximumb Před 4 lety +5

      Where can we watch Emily's show outside the US?

    • @jjhggdcqz
      @jjhggdcqz Před 4 lety +1

      Pterosaurs are some of my favorite prehistoric creatures! It's a shame that documentaries usually have them playing second fiddle to dinosaurs.

  • @SuicideBunny6
    @SuicideBunny6 Před 4 lety +8

    0:31 I love how you included a banana for scale

  • @raku8349
    @raku8349 Před 3 lety +4

    "In awe at the size of this lad..."
    "Absolute unit"
    Lmao im dying

  • @Sketchy_Dood
    @Sketchy_Dood Před 4 lety +80

    Imagine being a pilot and seeing this thing flying next to you

    • @Rupcoris
      @Rupcoris Před 3 lety +2

      ATC: dude, you better not look left now
      me: *looks left (oviously), sees a quetzalcoatlus, proceeds to unlock the shooting button*

    • @Sketchy_Dood
      @Sketchy_Dood Před 3 lety

      The Good White bruhhhh I’m not sure how’d you shoot next to you but lmao

    • @claytonodonkazakhstans1335
      @claytonodonkazakhstans1335 Před 3 lety

      Wow

    • @raikimaru2531
      @raikimaru2531 Před 3 lety +2

      pilot : fox 2

    • @bakerzane3055
      @bakerzane3055 Před 3 lety

      Or at you

  • @unvergebeneid
    @unvergebeneid Před 4 lety +722

    Wrong! To fly you need to master two things:
    Falling and missing.

    • @ScottyDMcom
      @ScottyDMcom Před 4 lety +24

      Because they're from a planet that's mostly harmless.

    • @dentoncrimescene
      @dentoncrimescene Před 4 lety +20

      And getting distracted.

    • @camramaster
      @camramaster Před 4 lety +13

      @@ScottyDMcom remember, it's "mostly"

    • @calistohuettich
      @calistohuettich Před 4 lety +16

      That´s literally an orbit

    • @thelastusurper6336
      @thelastusurper6336 Před 4 lety +23

      I thought it was falling, getting distracted and then forgetting to hit the ground?

  • @casmen90
    @casmen90 Před 3 lety +2

    0:28 "absolute unit" "in awe at the size of this lad"

  • @drinkwater473
    @drinkwater473 Před 3 lety +4

    Michael Habib listing the largest pterosaurs : Quetzalcoatlus, Hatzegopteryx, Cryodrakon.
    Arambourgiania : Am i a joke to you?

    • @MrAqr2598
      @MrAqr2598 Před 3 lety

      Just to make things clear, Arambourgiania only has the possibility as the largest pterosaur because only a small fraction(I think it was the 5th neck vertebra?) of its body was found. It has been deemed the largest by comparing the length ratio of neck to wing using skeleton models of Quetzalcoatlus and Hatzegopteryx. Arambourgiania is currently estimated to have a 7m(23.3 ft) wingspan.

  • @jacobandrews2663
    @jacobandrews2663 Před 4 lety +106

    This is so cool! Also, yes, Cryodrakon is definitely the coolest name any animal has had ever

    • @TheEggoEffect
      @TheEggoEffect Před 4 lety +4

      *Dracorex hogwartsia would like to know your location*

    • @mikespark72
      @mikespark72 Před 4 lety

      And from Canada! woot!

    • @hyrulphicsound
      @hyrulphicsound Před 4 lety

      @@mikespark72 I got unreasonably excited when they said it was found in Alberta, Canada. Maybe the Royal Tyrrell Museum will put up an exhibit of it one day. I'd definitely go to see it!

    • @Ceres4S2D1
      @Ceres4S2D1 Před 3 lety

      That name is making me angry. Now you humans are stealing names from me. CRYOVOLCANOS. DRAGONS DON'T EXIST AND LIFE CAN'T LIVE BEING FROZEN

  • @jakethesnake6169
    @jakethesnake6169 Před 4 lety +194

    Ark players: ooh! I know this one!

    • @testedalexthegreat1759
      @testedalexthegreat1759 Před 4 lety +4

      Doubt they did because the quetzal was not a dinosaur, ark calls everything a dino, though it did teach me some stuff.

    • @kerrkristie
      @kerrkristie Před 4 lety +12

      Yeeessss 2k hours on ark over here 😋

    • @heulwenrhosyn9625
      @heulwenrhosyn9625 Před 4 lety +3

      What is this Ark game I keep hearing about?

    • @Elitus_knightus
      @Elitus_knightus Před 4 lety +2

      @@heulwenrhosyn9625 Realistic minecraft

    • @heulwenrhosyn9625
      @heulwenrhosyn9625 Před 4 lety

      @@Elitus_knightus thanks!😊

  • @am_Nein
    @am_Nein Před 2 lety +2

    When I was small I always wanted to be a paleontologist but was so scared of none being left when I was older

  • @arunghadi
    @arunghadi Před 4 lety +73

    That means there's a chance that huge giraffe size bats can evolve in the future😅

    • @dannyboots
      @dannyboots Před 3 lety +6

      Batman

    • @darkmistico
      @darkmistico Před 2 lety +2

      bats are atuck in eating polem, fruits and insects, they evolve the ecolocation to find moths and other insects in the dark...... they cant go bigger than the brazilian giant bat ... they are in the best ecosystem and they cant grow larger

    • @WEE9
      @WEE9 Před 2 lety +1

      @@darkmistico if we do some mods they could maybe be as big as like pigs maybe

    • @erikperhs_
      @erikperhs_ Před 2 lety +2

      @@darkmistico I'm pretty sure the Australian "flying fox" is the biggest bat in the world.

  • @lucifer1493
    @lucifer1493 Před 4 lety +166

    All 3 Giant pterosaurs sound like they were from LOTR

    • @camramaster
      @camramaster Před 4 lety +5

      The sort of thing I would love to ride.

    • @dandankovsky7968
      @dandankovsky7968 Před 4 lety +7

      I think Tolkien directly refers to them as creatures from prehistoric times that Sauron managed to find in remote location and breed into mounts for Nazguls. So Tolkien probably draw inspiration from these non-dinosaurs.

    • @voornaam3191
      @voornaam3191 Před 4 lety +1

      @@dandankovsky7968 Bummer. I thought he had a great imagination. He just copied history. Thank you for debunking my heroes. Another one bikes the dusk.

    • @veggiedragon1000
      @veggiedragon1000 Před 4 lety +2

      Voor Naam I mean... It's not like dragons or Norse or fey mythology weren't written about or pictured beforehand. A lot of what Tolkien wrote was based on existing material, but that doesn't make it any less creative or imaginative. Just because he didn't pluck the ideas from thin air doesn't mean they weren't valid or amazing or that anyone else could have done what he did. NO ONE just plucks ideas from nothing.
      Terry Pratchett I would call one of the most imaginative writers I've read, but even the Discworld, with the elephants and the turtle, was ripped straight from Hindu cosmology. It's what he does *with* that concept that's creative.

    • @voornaam3191
      @voornaam3191 Před 4 lety +2

      @@veggiedragon1000 Do you have those answers in stock, just in case somebody makes a joke about Tolkien? It's a good one.

  • @DenisRyan
    @DenisRyan Před 4 lety +89

    We came out of shopping one day a few years back to find some bird poop splattered on our car. My wife was furious, because we had literally just been to the automatic car wash before going shopping. Then I saw the car next to us... It was covered in THE BIGGEST bird poop I have ever witnessed! I mean, it must have come from an albatross that just recovered from chronic constipation at the moment. It was impressively huge. And I lost it. I started crying laughing, gasping in silence for air as my entire body rocked with uncontrolled laughter. I could only imagine a pteranodon landing that turd! I couldn't articulate my imaginings at the time, and even writing this now, I'm giggling the whole time. It was magical. I only wish we could have stayed to talk to the owner of the other car...

    • @monsterhunterdude5448
      @monsterhunterdude5448 Před 4 lety +6

      Was probably a hobo

    • @dwaneanderson8039
      @dwaneanderson8039 Před 4 lety +9

      You should have taken a picture.

    • @watsisbuttndo829
      @watsisbuttndo829 Před 4 lety +2

      A friend of mine was crossing a bridge when a pelican sitting on a light above decided to unload. He did take a picture as the shite was from bumper to bumper on his car.

    • @TheTruthKiwi
      @TheTruthKiwi Před 3 lety +3

      I don't know but I'm guessing the owner of the other car probably wouldn't have found it as funny as you did. :p

    • @taleandclawrock2606
      @taleandclawrock2606 Před 3 lety

      Thats hilarious😂🤣

  • @twincast2005
    @twincast2005 Před 3 lety +6

    8:10 I knew that they jump and flap at the same time, but I had no idea how little the latter contributes to liftoff. This makes the standard Japanese verb for "to fly" being the same as "to jump" (albeit normally written with different Chinese characters) make even more sense.

  • @valentinyi3987
    @valentinyi3987 Před 4 lety +49

    Real question is how the hell they lift those heads

    • @mikeciul8599
      @mikeciul8599 Před 3 lety +5

      I really want to know! It looks like they would just swivel downwards and crash!

    • @Rupcoris
      @Rupcoris Před 3 lety +2

      same as giraffes, i guess(?)

    • @andito9973
      @andito9973 Před 3 lety +5

      NEVER SKIP NECK DAY

    • @mechwarrior13
      @mechwarrior13 Před 3 lety +2

      Hollow neck vertebrae and skull. With extra neck ligaments and muscles, similar to any long necked birds. Now how did sauropods like the diplodocus hold their head up is the real question lol

    • @e.t.2914
      @e.t.2914 Před 3 lety +1

      Pelicans and toucans do just fine. Id look at their bones next

  • @TriviaNight
    @TriviaNight Před 4 lety +94

    I'm glad it's okay to be smart. I love learning.

  • @caruzo9631
    @caruzo9631 Před 4 lety +117

    is there any method to measure historic ATMOSPHERE DENSITY?

    • @JoseGranny
      @JoseGranny Před 4 lety +8

      I wonder if atmospheric conditions played a part in pterosaurs’ ability to fly, as well.

    • @besmart
      @besmart  Před 4 lety +188

      So I left that out of the final video, but I asked Dr. Habib about this and here’s what he said: “The overall atmospheric density was probably about the same as it is now. But pterosaurs lived for a big part during a low oxygen environment. Flying in a low oxygen environment should be more difficult, but it affects small things more than big things. So the low oxygen environment may have prompted the evolution of vertebrate fliers, because there were a bunch of handicapped insects basically hanging out that may have been easier to catch. The lower oxygen at the end of the cretaceous may have also promoted very large fliers. Large fliers can flap in bursts, using muscles that don’t need as much oxygen. That’s called an anaerobic muscle, the fast-twitch muscle. If you’re a big flier you can do that much more effectively than a small flier. A small flier has to use aerobic muscle, that is, muscle that is oxygen utilizing when it’s working hard.”

    • @caruzo9631
      @caruzo9631 Před 4 lety +21

      It's Okay To Be Smart
      thank you the details are appreciated :)
      i just wondered if earths atmosphere was somehow denser maybe azhdarchids would‘ve had it easier more like swimming

    • @RickMason-yj7pv
      @RickMason-yj7pv Před 4 lety +2

      @@JoseGranny Ice. High humidity and high temps. No air. A ton of things interfere with flight. I myself am curious about their C of G.

    • @WawaDvd
      @WawaDvd Před 4 lety +4

      ​@@RickMason-yj7pv - It would logicly be at their shoulders. Big head and long neck compensate the "short" body and thin legs. It also makes more sense as having a CoG away from the shoulder induces a need of counter-balance torque on the shoulder (big bones, more mass)... wich for such a heavy thing, makes a much bigger difference than say a pigeon.

  • @kaitlynjocarroll
    @kaitlynjocarroll Před 3 lety +3

    I LOVE that the ring finger becomes the wing finger.😂

  • @gigachadrick7723
    @gigachadrick7723 Před 2 lety +4

    “I’m so glad we got chickens instead.”
    As soon as he said that I got a chicken sandwich ad

  • @alexv3357
    @alexv3357 Před 4 lety +20

    Sometimes I'm hard-pressed to remember that Joe isn't related to John and Hank Green

  • @richardhall1667
    @richardhall1667 Před 4 lety +14

    Sounds like a shirt idea: One side with some pterosaur art, the other with a warning not to skip Leg Day. Or both on one side. Either way, I’d buy it.

  • @matushonko7223
    @matushonko7223 Před 3 lety +1

    one other thing I would mention is wing anatomy- pterosaurs likely had wings stiffer than either bats or birds, and so could sustain higher speeds while still generating lift- that meant more efficient flight, more efficient travelling and higher sizes permitted with smaller wing size

  • @2011SoxMD36
    @2011SoxMD36 Před 3 lety

    As a career F-16 mechanic, this put it into a new perspective. Also, i very didn't expect my jets to get a shoutout in a dinosaur video.

  • @Mathewrath
    @Mathewrath Před 4 lety +29

    Me: Why two channels that i follow just posted a video about pterosaurs almost at the same time? That's suspicious. *proceeds to watch*

    • @franzkissel1369
      @franzkissel1369 Před 4 lety +1

      What is the other one?

    • @Mathewrath
      @Mathewrath Před 4 lety

      @@franzkissel1369 It's said in the video

    • @siyacer
      @siyacer Před 4 lety +1

      Wow, I didn't know you were talking until you said "me:"!

    • @nerd_alert927
      @nerd_alert927 Před 4 lety

      Are you talking about Eons? They did a video on this subject about 2 years ago, I think.
      Edit: That episode is called, 'The Biggest Thing that Ever Flew.'

  • @reandrevdmerwe9196
    @reandrevdmerwe9196 Před 4 lety +70

    The transformers reference was amazing😁😁

    • @besmart
      @besmart  Před 4 lety +25

      I had the Dinobots set and I am very upset that it was so wrong

    • @escapementality5361
      @escapementality5361 Před 3 lety

      @@besmart I'm just jealous. I would have killed a whole clade of flying reptiles for a Dinobots set. On the other hand, I lost my Voltron in a creek because I wanted to test if it could swim, so I guess I don't deserve nice things.

    • @Ceres4S2D1
      @Ceres4S2D1 Před 3 lety

      @@escapementality5361 wow. You'll kill a species more intelligent than you just for a piece of plastic or metal or whatever it is. I'm surprised your not extinct

  • @davidstout6051
    @davidstout6051 Před 2 lety

    This is remarkably well done. Informative and entertaining.

  • @himarkalvin
    @himarkalvin Před 4 lety +2

    I'm pretty sure the guy is wrong at 7:22. Birds use drops all the time to get the momentum to fly before leveling out in flight.

  • @Cammymoop
    @Cammymoop Před 4 lety +25

    Love the video, qeutzlcoatlus and other azhdarchids are some of my favorite animals.
    Pterosaurs weren't dinosaurs, but they weren't very far off either. They were both ornithodirans (following the most popular taxonomy at least) so they were more closely related than dinosaurs were to pretty much anything else including crocodilians. So honestly including pterosaur toys with dinosaur toys is kind of... almost correct in a way

    • @Dragrath1
      @Dragrath1 Před 4 lety +6

      Yep the exclusion is more a consequence of where we decided to define what a dinosaur is rather than a lack of a relation. They even shared a number of major anatomical characteristics such as the one way flow respiratory system of archosaurs and one of the more surprising findings being that the early dinofuzz feathers of dinosaurs and the fuzz of pterosaurs were so functionally identical in their detailed microstructures that the trait basically had to have shared a common origin from their last common ancestor and that coupled with finding primitive feathers on ornithischian dinosaurs all seems to suggest they all shared a fuzzy last common ancestor which is kind of amazing. That respiratory system also seems to have led to hollow bones by incorporating their air sacs into their bones as part of the respiratory system not dissimilar to how mammals incorporated their blood production organ into our bones. The thing at lot of people misunderstand about their hollow bones is that thanks to the internal structural scaffolding their bones weren't weak the same light weight bones which helped pterosaurs and birds both develop flight also were one of the major innovations that enabled he sauropods to get gigantic. It is amazing the kind of things there used to be on Earth...
      If it hadn't been for that cataclysmic asteroid which literally was one of the three largest asteroids to hit the Earth since the Hadean Eon.... Vredefort Impact 2,023 Ma, Sudbury Impact 1849 Ma, Chicxulub Impact 66 Ma
      There is a reason it is the only asteroid impact directly related to an extinction event the 4th largest known asteroid to hit Earth in the geological record was orders of magnitude smaller/less energetic.

  • @NewMessage
    @NewMessage Před 4 lety +7

    "It's a living..."
    -Quetzalcoatlus

  • @Juntaski
    @Juntaski Před 3 lety +1

    Always loved your show Joe! Keep up the great work! :)

  • @luizfernando4497
    @luizfernando4497 Před 3 lety +4

    Fun fact: one of the most important roads here in brazil is called anhanguera

  • @Percy1800sDetective
    @Percy1800sDetective Před 4 lety +18

    Thank you so much! I work on making the animals in my 'fantasy' novel as realistic as possible, so thank you so much for this!

  • @Turabbo
    @Turabbo Před 4 lety +10

    I really enjoyed this video! I just wanted to point out that nothing is subtitled after 13:36 in your supplied subtitles, and I think because you uploaded subtitles for the given language of the video, the CZcams auto captioning option isn't there either! 🙁 Oh no!

    • @Ktulu789
      @Ktulu789 Před 4 lety

      That's when the promo starts. That is not part of the episode soooo...

  • @notnix4
    @notnix4 Před 3 lety +1

    13:44 I like how he notices that big bone and stops there

  • @johnbremner4154
    @johnbremner4154 Před 3 lety

    Excellent documentary!

  • @Composite7248
    @Composite7248 Před 4 lety +8

    would it be terrifying to have pterosaurs around? or pterrifying?

  • @lllllllllllll702
    @lllllllllllll702 Před 4 lety +4

    I really LOVE paleontology, I wish u have more of these in the future! :D feed ME more

  • @tastyneck
    @tastyneck Před 4 lety +1

    I didn't think i'd be this interested and invested in this subject but here we are. Thanks for this great vid!

  • @rogersledz6793
    @rogersledz6793 Před 3 lety

    Thank you so much for uploading this video. It is helping me get through the pandemic!

  • @zzzeyder
    @zzzeyder Před 4 lety +25

    It's literally 2 am right now, I am from India, And Oh boy i am lucky i heard the notification

    • @aurapain5757
      @aurapain5757 Před 4 lety +3

      Lol i am glad that ur not watching the cringy song of carryminati

    • @anuragchakraborty3432
      @anuragchakraborty3432 Před 4 lety

      @@aurapain5757 every channel name ending with gaming, is a hardcore cringe carry minati fan

    • @zzzeyder
      @zzzeyder Před 4 lety

      @@anuragchakraborty3432 i mean you are not wrong🙄 but let's be real tiktok vs youtube is not a real thing,they just doing that'll to gain subs and views

  • @kramermariav
    @kramermariav Před 4 lety +6

    Anhanguera is like a head with wings, lol

  • @devanshujha8121
    @devanshujha8121 Před rokem

    'wow, so technical'...awesome timing 😂😂

  • @mechwarrior13
    @mechwarrior13 Před 3 lety +1

    9:30 lol I literally have every lego set in the background in my room too hahaha

  • @Bonzothefifth
    @Bonzothefifth Před 2 lety +7

    I’ve heard that larger pterosaurs like Quetzalcoatlus may have been the only species’ to take advantage of the niche of the high atmosphere where some flying insects can dwell well above birds, feeding like a balleen whale passively ingesting whatever might be in its path. But I’m not sure if that would actually net any net calories since I’m sure having its mouth open must affect the aerodynamics and probably dried it out too quickly to be worth the effort.
    But it’s a neat thought.

  • @q-miiproductions878
    @q-miiproductions878 Před 4 lety +3

    4:32 Remember: KET-za-KUAT-lus.

  • @AxionSmurf
    @AxionSmurf Před 3 lety

    This channel is friggin great

  • @Ballin4Vengeance
    @Ballin4Vengeance Před 2 lety

    “Sorry there’s a quetzalcoatl outside it might eat the kids” is the new “Dingo ate me baby.”

  • @EverythingScience
    @EverythingScience Před 4 lety +32

    Real question: How did the giant pterosaurs get a p in it's name

  • @Lena_Dt
    @Lena_Dt Před 2 lety +5

    In 2018, a huge pterodactyl was found. They called it Dracula and the wing span was about 12 meters. The bones can be seen in a museum in Germany, very impressive! Probably the largest pterodactyl in the world

  • @sparagnino
    @sparagnino Před 4 lety +1

    Biomechanist! Your guests do always cool and strange jobs that I wish had knew they exists when choosing the University 15 years ago.

  • @loverock220591
    @loverock220591 Před 4 lety

    More episodes like this!! So interesting!

  • @flibbertigibbet6200
    @flibbertigibbet6200 Před 3 lety +6

    I get really fed up up when a bird shits on my car after cleaning it. you imagine if one of these did it lol

  • @fappjack0067
    @fappjack0067 Před 3 lety +3

    I thought you're Johny Knoxville for a moment 🤣🤣🤣

  • @tklyte
    @tklyte Před 2 lety +2

    That was cool to learn. I love this channel !!

  • @fns58
    @fns58 Před 3 lety +1

    Love this mix of a super interesting talk mixed with old memes xD

  • @rauntche
    @rauntche Před 2 lety +3

    I don't care if they might eat the kids. I want to see dem giant flying lizards.

  • @shakyongsim
    @shakyongsim Před 4 lety +10

    1:55
    Michael: there are such a thing as flying dinosaurs
    Me: 𝗗𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗼𝗻𝘀!
    Michael: they're called birds......
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    .
    What?

  • @jonezzzyyy6192
    @jonezzzyyy6192 Před 2 lety +2

    I'm sure it would be unreal to see one of these creatures fly...

  • @pm146
    @pm146 Před 3 lety

    Imagine a flock of 10 meter wide bats pooping on your car.

  • @censusgary
    @censusgary Před 4 lety +10

    The “Qu” in “Quetzalcoatlus“ is pronounced like “k,” not like “kw.” It’s based on Spanish orthography.

    • @austinshoupe3003
      @austinshoupe3003 Před 4 lety +1

      Aren't all binomial terms pretending to be Latin?

    • @rogeriopenna9014
      @rogeriopenna9014 Před 4 lety +3

      It looks like it's based on Aztec.

    • @isaaclopez63
      @isaaclopez63 Před 3 lety +3

      It is Aztec, there is a God with a similar name called Quetzalcoatl meaning feathered serpent . But I'm too lazy to go into it's History, it is amazing though, such an amazing God. And btw, your explanation on the pronouncement is not exectly correct 😅 I'm Latin so I know.

    • @rogeriopenna9014
      @rogeriopenna9014 Před 3 lety

      @@isaaclopez63 You are latin? From Lazio, Italy?
      or are you a LATINO-AMERICANO? (Latin American)

    • @rogeriopenna9014
      @rogeriopenna9014 Před 3 lety

      In portuguese, which is another Iberian language, Q can have both sounds.
      QU followed by O or A always have a KW sound.
      QU followed by E or I can have a KW sound if the U has ¨ above it (Ü) or K sound if there is no U.
      But less than 10 years ago there was a spelling reform that eliminated the Ü, so now you can´t know just reading if it's a K or KW sound. Just like english you now need to decorate the pronounciation of words! Preposterous!

  • @forrestgump8717
    @forrestgump8717 Před 3 lety +4

    I'm more interested about how they get that neck to stay straight instead of how they fly.

    • @gormauslander
      @gormauslander Před 3 lety

      Seems unbalanced

    • @dantan1249
      @dantan1249 Před 2 lety

      It’s probably naturally rigid like a lot of dinosaur tales. Also, when an object flys, there is a lot of lift on the front portion which is probably why they were so front heavy.

  • @andrewstahl6916
    @andrewstahl6916 Před 3 lety +1

    Thank you johnny Knoxville for teaching me about Giant Pterosaurs!

  • @monkeytron5061
    @monkeytron5061 Před 4 lety

    So the wing alone launches them just in two different ways, jumping and flapping.
    I didn’t know that! I love that!

  • @CJsbro1
    @CJsbro1 Před 4 lety +7

    Last time I was this early the dinosaurs roamed the earth

    • @CJsbro1
      @CJsbro1 Před 4 lety

      You know you're early when you beat It's Okay to Be Smart's comment on their own video! Amazing channel always guys!

  • @oliverpepit1354
    @oliverpepit1354 Před 4 lety +7

    Joe: A big girrafe/bear/dragon
    My brain: A big girrafe/bear/dragon/Moana

    • @dannyboots
      @dannyboots Před 3 lety

      My brain: 🎶 I see what's happenin' here 🎶

  • @amysison-bullena4701
    @amysison-bullena4701 Před 3 lety

    I love your pen organizer by the wall!

  • @niji8164
    @niji8164 Před 3 lety

    Cryodrakon and Dracorex are the coolest names i've heard so far.

  • @shamoy1000
    @shamoy1000 Před 3 lety +3

    Huh. All these " experts" finally figured out how to ask an expert in another field. Kind of pitiful it took this long.

  • @bukueOner
    @bukueOner Před 3 lety +3

    "They're not dinosaurs, but we're not gonna tell you why"

    • @JadeMythriil
      @JadeMythriil Před 3 lety +9

      simple. They branched off from the family tree before dinosaurs even became a thing.

  • @Brandon_metab
    @Brandon_metab Před 2 lety

    Thank god for the banana graphic in the size comparison. I would have been completely lost without the mighty Musa acuminata.

  • @1inchlegendaka.icebrrg156

    Me:"Hey clever CZcams Guy"
    Clever CZcams guy: "Hey smart people!"
    Me:"Goodbye"

  • @Gandorhar
    @Gandorhar Před 3 lety +3

    Well the most important thing I learned is that the "P" in Pterosaurs is silent. I always tried to pronounce it with the "P" and it just sounded wrong. Anyway ofc the rest of the video was more intressting than that little fact, great video I loved it!

    • @AnaboliKitchen
      @AnaboliKitchen Před 3 lety

      Maybe to native English speakers, but we who pronounce p in “pterosaurus” in our languages don't find it weird.

  • @user-vn7ce5ig1z
    @user-vn7ce5ig1z Před 4 lety +3

    3:25 - Someone should make a scale model/balloon of them and fly them as an art-project or something to give a sense of what it must have been like.

    • @bengriffin6455
      @bengriffin6455 Před 4 lety +1

      Have a look at the Paul MacCready Quetzalcoatlus for an unmanned flying replica

  • @ThisFinalHandle
    @ThisFinalHandle Před 3 lety +1

    The way I had it figured, toruk is the baddest cat in the sky. Nothing attacks him. So why would he ever look up?

  • @funiman6783
    @funiman6783 Před 2 lety

    I can look outside of my window and say “hey look! A dinosaur!”