5 Strange Creatures From the Triassic Period

[@Cryptic_Bigfoot]

As far as time periods to cover next, the bizarre early mammal groups from the Paleocene and Eocene would be an interesting choice.

[@AndrewTBP]

That’s KZbin, there’s no point whining about it to us.

[@ArmchairDeity]

💯💯💯

[@Diloparker]

Actually when you think about it, our current mammal species are pretty weird. -A large, intelligent, and almost hairless mammal with a trunk, and tusks derived from incisors. -large aquatic filter feeding mammals that descend from hoofed artiodactyls. -small winged mammals that perform echolocation. -mammals that walk upright, are mostly hairless, have short rostrums, and large craniums, allowing for intellect so high they dominated the entire planet, and currently have a global population of eight billion. These examples are pretty “weird”, but we just don’t see them as such, because we are just so used to seeing them.

[@Diloparker]

⁠@@AndrewTBPWhining? They weren’t whining they were just giving a suggestion that they would like to see. They weren’t complaining about anything.

[@jacksonbickford4783]

Paleocene, Carboniferous, Permian seas, Devonian periods plant life and what plants made it to the Carboniferous.

[@sqrt2295]

Shringasaurus looks like a real life version of the "dinosaurs" from those cheesy early 20th century films where it's literally a lizard with glued-on horns walking on a miniature set.

[@thebigchimpanski4783]

Slurpasaurs is the scientific name for those creatures 😏

[@spookyfrogs1874]

@@thebigchimpanski4783 thank you for reminding me of the name slurpasaur, it's SO CUTE, and shringasaurus is very cute too!! i would be his friend

[@patreekotime4578]

Also very very similar to the Xool creatures from Ghostbusters!

[@JurassicReptile]

@@patreekotime4578 1. They’re terror dogs 2. Only one is named Zuul 3. There are only two of them

[@leppeppel]

Check out the poster art for Irwin Allen's The Lost World (1960)

[@hollyodii5969]

Part two, please! The Triassic is full of so many wonderful weirdos, I could never get enough of them! Maybe even a part three??? This would be a phenomenal series!!! keep up the good work!!!

[@maxtube444]

Agreed!

[@haseo8244]

After all the Permian Triassic extinction brought about a whole host of strange things. Naked seeds plants, corals wiped out completely, replaced by modern corals and on.

[@foxxiangel6384]

infinity parts plz lol

[@sassa82]

Triassic period is one of the most interesting periods when it comes to animals.

[@carto4028]

Fresh out of an apocalyptic great dying. Evolutionary bottlenecks. Yeah things got real wacky.

[@haseo8244]

Plants too.

[@beareid6053]

I would love more of this kind of thing. You always do a good job of describing the animals without getting too technical. Love your work.

[@sergeipohkerova7211]

Triassic dinosaurs look like my drawings in elementary school before I got a little better with the hand coordination in middle and high school. The meteor in my life that ended my dinosaurs was when my school counselor told me my art was cute but I wasn't really talented enough to make it a career. Now I work in IT. I just draw dinosaurs on work notepaper and on post its to stick on colleagues' office doors and cubicles. "I tyrannoSAWR what you did there, nice work!" "You're triceraTOPS in productivity!" "If you haven't hadrosaur your break yet, make sure you take it before 3" "You CoelaCANTh do jobs using other employees' work IDs, cavemen...' Go to hell, Dr. Lowndes.

[@lmc689]

"... look like my drawings in elementary school..." Ikr? Or like those cheap mass produced dinosaur toys from dollar stores. It's the meme that goes from one point of view to the opposite after learning something and then back to the first after learning more. Btw, love your puns and I bet you draw the BEST dinos.

[@Evolved_Skeptic]

@sergeipohkerova7211 If you ever want to get back into doing art (at least as a hobby). there's a thriving Paleoart community online. Once you've built up the competence to accurately go from skeletal specimens (& some behavioural predictions) to a final artwork of a species (perhaps in situ of its environment) in your own unique style - then you'll start getting commissions. Look-up Dimitry Bogdanov to start with. He's certainly in the top ten, if not the number one, Paleoartist alive today. There are dozens of others in a myriad of artistic media & styles, as well as a fairly supportive community. Wouldn't it feel immensely satisfying to someday send that guy - who dissed your dinoart - a copy of a book about prehistoric animals & plants (including dinosaurs), which you illustrated..!?

[@hardrockyodeling2629]

Triassic dinosaurs are mother nature throwing spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks.

[@agni_oh]

This story made me smile on a rather shitty day, thanks for sharing💛💛💛

[@einindividuum5428]

Seems I would enjoy working with you :D

[@SmashBrosAssemble]

I’ve used this analogy before, the Triassic was basically God’s science fair, & the Archosaurs won by proxy of, well all the other contestants are dead.

[@TheGuyCalledX]

Plenty of non-archosaurs from synapsids to lepidosauromorphs..

[@honourabledoctoredwinmoria3126]

@@TheGuyCalledX Plus whatever turtles are.

[@TheGuyCalledX]

@@honourabledoctoredwinmoria3126 true. Turtles are the hagfish of the archosaurs.

[@daniellewillis2767]

​@@TheGuyCalledXthe hagfish of the Triassic? How is a turtle like a hagfish? Not snarking, genuinely interested..

[@TheGuyCalledX]

@@daniellewillis2767 it's a phrase used a lot by the channel Clint's Reptiles. In a sense, all vertebrates can be considered fish. You are more closely related to a goldfish than a goldfish is to a shark. Phylogenetically all tetrapods (amphibians, reptiles [including birds], and mammals) are a type of bony fish, like goldfish, rather than a cartilaginous fish like sharks. Hagfish (and lampreys) are the earliest branch of the vertebrate tree of life. They are the fish that are least related to all the other fish, that some don't even consider them true fish. In this specific case, it might be more accurate to call turtles the tunicates of the archosaurs (tunicates, or sea squirts, are the closest living relative of vertebrates/fish that are not vertebrates/fish).

[@cyrkielnetwork]

I'm not paleontologist, only ocassionaly watching YT videos, but when I first time saw Atopodentatus skull, I was like "c'mon, it's obiously squashed".

[@macroglossumstellatarum5932]

I've got a bit of a cheaty suggestion: Thylacocephalans! An order of stem-crustacean that lived from the ordovician to the cretaceous, and thus fits anywhere if you have space. Despite how common they were, they are rarely talked about. Their body is almost entirely encased in an ellipsoid carapace, with a gap for a huge pair of eyes fused into one at the front, and a slit along the bottom for six mantis arms and innumerable swimmerettes to poke out. Doesn't help that the most well known one, Ainiktozoon, is almost always horribly outdated. (It got squished out of its shell during preservation)

[@SiqueScarface]

2:30 A toothed cleft lip! New fear unlocked.

[@jacksonbickford4783]

I like the idea of a second part to your Triassic video as well as going back in time before the triassic and cover some weird animals.

[@julianboyd243]

You can honestly do strange creatures from every geological time period

[@Reece-3601]

Ironicallly, humans are the strangest of all !

[@stevejohnson3357]

I love that shirt. Ben has an amazing sense of style.

[@thebigchimpanski4783]

I love the Triassic era. The creatures are fascinating and bizarre. I wish more prehistory documentaries were made about the time period.

[@stevendorries]

More Triassic weirdos please, Triassic never gets enough love, always Permian and Jurassic/Cretaceous

[@lootownica]

At first i thought that atopodentatus was just a single animal with a serious cleft palate... Now i wonder how many dinos has been classified as a separate species due to bone deformation. Like paleontology wasn't hard enough 😅

[@LoudmouthReviews]

We need a Prehistoric Planet season set sometime in the Triassic

[@melvinshine9841]

Evolution was definitely going through a phase after the Great Dying. Not quite the acid trip that was going on before fish were in beta, but still weird. If we're talking about Triassic oddballs, those predatory archosaurs with the ridiculously disproportionate sized heads would be neat to see. I totally can't remember what they're called, but they're like if you stuck an Allosaurus' head on an American alligator's body, it looks so silly.

[@asocialevent8168]

What’s crazy to me is that there’s another animal from the same time with the opposite proportions- huge body, tiny head. There like a 2% chance it’s some kind of prank done by a time traveler, because truly it would make so much more sense if someone just switched the heads before the fossilization process started

[@Extra-Celestial7]

Are you reffering to Erytrosuchus?

[@melvinshine9841]

@@Extra-Celestial7 Yeah, that thing. I can never remember their names, but I remember their comically huge heads.

[@ZEYSamon]

please make part 2 ... and everything you said at the end !! thank you! keep up the good work 👏

[@GeraBrown]

Yes please, more videos like this! Series of videos featuring different periods. Sounds wonderful! ♥️♥️

[@black999c]

Love the fact that decidueye is based stilt-owls. Some of these animals would make for great Pokémon’s.

[@Shaden0040]

Part two part 3 part 4 etc I don't know enough about the Jurassic to suggest anything that's why I like this series because you're teaching me stuff introducing me to new creatures that I have not seen or heard of before. thank you guys

[@rhetorical1488]

Evolution: there is a niche that requires a creature. Reality :Your order of standard creature parts from galactic amazon has been delayed.

[@KrisPSouls9258]

There are so many crazy but cool animals that use to be around. And so many that we will never even know of.

[@axeltee1968]

Very good video! I'd like to see more about strange creatures as far back in time as possible. Up the timeline till now. Would be a great series.

[@SmashBrosAssemble]

This video just made Skeleton Crews Alex Ruebenstahl very happy.

[@Mezkek]

10:49 mole rat from Fallout 4

[@macroglossumstellatarum5932]

No Drepanosaurs? (There's way too many triassic weirdos to pick just 5, are there...)

[@N0sf3r4tuR1s3n]

I know, those definitely should be mentioned. And what exactly was tanystropheus doing? Do we have any idea what it's ecological and behavioral niche would have been?

[@pengen_gantinama]

i guess they picked those 5 genus because no other animal genus have generally similar adaptations like them, even in closely related species. Like Sharovipteryx is also super weird but they have similar-looking relative in Ozimek. And Tanystropheus have some other long necked relatives like Dinocephalosaurus.

[@johnjackson3800]

I would love for you to do a series of videos on the strange creatures throughout the prehistoric eras.

[@joshuabrabo6400]

FIRST COMMENT! Haha thanks for releasing this video- love anything about weird and obscure prehistoric creatures.

[@rizon98]

It might be because I'm not particularly knowledgeable on prehistoric species but it's so interesting getting to learn about these strange animals, most of which I've never heard of!

[@MakairodonX9434]

The creatures of Triassic are far underrated compared to those of the Cretaceous, and I congratulate you guys on this fantastic video.

[@Grymm_the_Pleasant]

A problem with teraterpeton being a myrmecophage is that eusocial insects as we know them, be they hymenopterids or termites seem to have a Jurassic origin at earliest. Not that there couldn't have potentially been other eusocial insects to raid, but they would have been of odd origins and without known evidence

[@mariawhite7337]

Ah yes I understand: **does not understand anything you said**

[@probablyaxenomorph5375]

​@@mariawhite7337 In the video, teraterpeton is compared to an aardvark. Aardvarks are myrmecophagous, meaning they eat ants and similar colonial insects like termites. However, evidence points to ants and termites not even having existed at the same time as teraterpeton, so it likely was not adapted for eating them.

[@ogrejd]

Eretmorhipis - "History (and paleontology) never repeats itself, but it often rhymes." :) edit @13:40 - Always nice to see Nova Scotian fauna featured in paleo videos, rare as it is. We here in Nova Scotia get to hear so little about them. :/ Our main museum here in Halifax doesn't have anything from before the last ice age, as far as I remember, and the occasional dinosaur exhibit they have always seems to be of the standards (ie, mostly Hell Creek stuff). Triassic and earlier animals, though? Forget about it. :/ We occasionally hear about the quantity of stuff found at the Joggins formation (but not at any of the others, such as the Wolfville formation Teraterpeton's from), but virtually never anything about any significant animals... :(

[@techfixr2012]

I think this could absolutely be a series. Just pick another 5 and run with it.

[@Official_Doge]

I came to this channel because the shark paleontology content is S tier. I think it would be cool to cover sharks across time (if you already haven’t, or if it needs updating) :)

[@clairityfrancis8701]

Oh definitely a part two please 🥰✨ I really enjoyed these unique fauna!

[@fireballninja01]

yeah i’d love a series of this! and hopefully you’ll never run out of creatures for this

[@cammelspit]

Ordivician, ~450-475 Myears ago. I am personally especially interested in the first land plants. Then my other recommendations sorta follow the evolution of plants, first roots, first woody stems, first leaves... I like plants. :D

[@LightBlueVans]

yes!!! part 2 and older periods as well please please please!

[@andreagriffiths3512]

Yes as many of these videos as you can do! It’s fascinating to learn more about the less well known animals ❤❤❤

[@julieodonnell166]

You're marvelous! Thank you. It would be brilliant to see this as a series!

[@evelinepotter4551]

Really awesome. Please make more parts. Though other time periods like the Permian also have have strange critters. There is so much to choose from.

[@Fede_99]

Yes this should definitely become a series, and I hope I'll see lots of strange animals especially from the Paleozoic

[@HLBear]

Teraterpeton reminds me of a Tim Burton anole. Very interesting creature. 😊 (This may help people grasp that all life is not just variations of what we see today. Many body styles have come and gone, and more will come and go in the future. Excellent idea for a ssries.)

[@flightlesslord2688]

the Triassic was so weird, an animal converged with the modern creature that was genuinely thought to be a hoax upon initial discovery.

[@legendre007]

Strange creatures and the Triassic Period: the two best topics. 😮

[@Aspenluver51]

sunday got so much better, thank you again :D

[@dinohall2595]

The fact that it was already the Late Triassic less than a third of the way through the period is just too appropriate for such a weird time in Earth's history. It may be an ice-cold take, but I'd love a sequel to this video with Permian fauna.

[@GeorgeHrynewich]

Excellent job, very well done. You did pretty well with the Teraterpeton hrynewichorum the last part is pronounced Rhine wick orum. My last name is pronounced Rhine wick. The two animals were found close together near a fossilized river. A rockfall exposed one specimen, with no skull. It was oriented perpendicular to the plane of the river which suggests it may have been in it's burrow at the time of death. I was specifically looking for the second animal in the corresponding location of the fallen cliff section and it was, also at a strange angle. We think they may have been in the same burrow or burrow system. The second animal discovered was fragmented badly but had a complete skull and dental battery. It was by comparing the ribs and limbs that we determined the first animal was also Teraterpeton. Cheers

[@thelittleal1212]

Metriorynchids like Cricosaurus would be fitting for strange creatures of the Jurassic. And razanandrongobe

[@johnh6524]

Great shirt😀

[@ashbirk4681]

I teach parkour and a warmup exercise I love making my kids do is “gatorducks” (alligator walk followed by a duck walk). We use eretmorhipus to illustrate that

[@StrivetobeDust]

Yes, part two, please!

[@4Beats4Me]

Bring it on for creatures never seen & impossible to describe! I've wanted to see the truly varied life on early earth forever!

[@wasyertakeawaythaturmadeofcorn]

Love these types of videos. Yes to all.

[@AlmightyRawks]

You say no one can dream up an eretmorhipis and that's fair enough but I might be a contender since my favorite strange creature has become cotylorhynchus because its bodyplan is just so bizarre. I hope perhaps that if another video is made about strange creaures from the late permian, this absolute unit gets a feature. For now I will enjoy your eretmorhipis for the same reasons: they make me laugh :'D

[@matthewdrum2961]

please make a part 2, and yes more of this series please!

[@tardismole]

Please have a part two. It would go well with the title "Weirdos of the Triassic." A series sounds like an excellent idea, too.

[@patreekotime4578]

Nice drawings Hamzah!

[@orionspur]

Shringasaurus looks just like Gozer's dogs in Ghostbusters (1984). (Corrected from "Zuul". Oops!)

[@JurassicReptile]

Zuul was one of the dogs, the female one. The male was Vinz Clortho.

[@randallbesch2424]

Yes it looks similar to a Terror Dog the archeologists saw it too.

[@RichardRenes]

Yes to part II please :) At some stage, you'd have to include Tanystropheus of course

[@Cancoillotteman]

I hope Triassic weirdos becomes a series ! Those animals are facinating

[@Tizzie-j6l]

Yes, part two please.

[@rocknrollmanic]

I would love a series on marine weirdos. A whole video on the Ostracoderms or the Conodonts would be so fun

[@jorispattyn9690]

Fantastic, Ben! Keep it up!

[@Titus-as-the-Roman]

Erthrosuchus, after much internal debate, shall be my Mount into Battle , Tanystropheus shall be placed into the Eternal Garden

[@MissingTiramisu]

I think you choose topics very well and do not need assistance. Probably not a helpful comment but I learned several things in this video. So just keep it up 😊

[@ehfoiwehfowjedioheoih4829]

Could you talk about the evolution of bilateral symmetry? Particularly if it is related to the larval stage of cnidarian. Thank you :) Love this channel

[@viviagrey9938]

Please, do a part two. The Triassic period is my favourite. I know the big carnivores are the popular ones, but I prefer the weird ones. Anything with microraptors and pseudosuchians.

[@jimmydean123123]

You forgot to include the pervatasaurus

[@happysaladd8951]

I read it as pervertsaurus lol

[@SB-qm5wg]

Strange creatures from the X period is a great idea. Do more please.

[@AntoniusTyas]

_"Life on Our Planet_ has existed for a very long time" Yeah it was long, I dozed off watching LoOP Also you need to make this a series: Triassic Oddities, maybe? So many peculiar Triassic animals, especially marine reptiles.

[@charleston1789]

Definitely a part two please

[@davewilson9738]

After following you for several years Ben, strange is a description that I find hard to believe after everything you have shown us! Wonderful episode - thank you. Possibly a naive question Ben, but is there a type of dinosaur/prehistoric creature native to only one country on earth? Was there a Welsh dragon etc?

[@marcapouli7805]

Really great video, can't wait for part 2!!

[@dr.archaeopteryx5512]

More weirdos, please. Lisowicia, Drepanosaurs, Phytosaurs, Stem-Dinosauromorphs, Shuvosaurs and Lotosaurus deserve publicity if you're in need of more weirdos.

[@WillArtie]

love these types of vids!!! xxx

[@petergriffin6346]

Top five creatures of all time

[@cerealexperimentsuboa]

THIS WOULD BE A BANGER SERIES

[@greensteve9307]

Great vid, love a part 2.

[@palpaleo]

A series of this would be aswesome!

[@dionettaeon]

The Cambrian period would be the motherload for this series.

[@kingcockroach.]

I always love convergence in evolution. Nature just said, if it aint broke dont fix it as it reused plans

[@qwertyuiop1st]

After you've done a variety of 'strange creatures from the past' you might try to do a 'strange creatures from the future' in which you (the team) tries to imagine the strangest possible creatures and then explain how it is plausible that evolution could create 'something like that!' (because, as earlier episodes shown, evolution has done a bunch of weird).

[@jkosch]

There is still room for more Triassic weirdness. I am particularly disappointed that no drepanosaur was a featured animal in this episode. Everyone who ever saw their arms, or skulls, or tails (at least in the derived ones) will agree that they deserved a place in a list of strange creatures from the Triassic.

[@mistformsquirrel]

*Slaps top of the triassic* You can fit so many weird creatures in this time period

[@gattycroc8073]

the Triassic and Paleocene are two of my favorite periods in earth's history simply because they show how life can recover after extinction events. if there is any other time period to cover weird creatures it would be the Paleocene with animals like Titanoides, Teaniolabis, and Stylinodon.

[@jadeoshaunessy8407]

SPECTACULAR, Ben🎉

[@TheRealPandanimal]

Yes please more strange and wonderful beasts!

[@madderhat5852]

Informative and enlightening. I can't wait for more strangeness.

[@dreamyrhodes]

I really would have been surprised if vertebrates with mandibles existed because that's a very unusual bodyplan for vertebrates. While antropoda developed from the body plan of "segments with feet attached" and mandibles being derived from this plan, vertebrates' general bodyplan is "worm with two openings" who later developed vertebrae, skull and jaw. So no surprise that "zipper mouth" was just a misalignment in the fossil.

[@mercuryatamolos3687]

Limusaurus is an absolutely bizarre Jurassic dinosaur. When they hatched, they had teeth, and then they lost those teeth in adulthood, which is a completely unique mode of ontogeny among amniotes

[@unicornep1818]

Even though it's Jurassic month I would luv a series on weird life from every period. Pip pip

[@lucasserafim4152]

I want part II! Talk about erythrosuchids, please!

[@thomasnuedling9167]

More please

[@gustavderkits8433]

Excellent choices.

[@ThePseud0Legend]

Definitely part two!!!!

[@thelittleal1212]

The Triassic is possibly my firs for second favorite time period, just for how weird it was, and it deserved more attention.

[@Francois2144]

I can't get over Hyperodapedon. For me, it is the weirdest among the five. I would love to see more weirdos from the Triassic and the Jurassic. Life on Earth is truly stranger than fiction.

[@Glenn_AE6YT]

After every great dying event there seems to be a plethora of strange creatures. That would make a good theme. Take care.

[@josephkania642]

Do a series on convergent evolution where you compare an extant, highly specialized species with previous, unrelated organisms, going from the newest species to the oldest.