How Did Birds and Crocodilians Escape Extinction?

It's the end of the world as we know it and birds and crocodilians will be fine? How is it possible that they survived the extinction event that killed all of their closest relatives including all of the non-avian dinosaurs? Let's take a look at what exactly killed the other dinosaurs and what made birds and crocodilians different from their doomed cousins
#clintsreptiles #dinosaurdecember #dinosaur .
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Clint is a professional biologist and educator, but above all, Clint LOVES reptiles and he loves to share that love with everyone he meets. Whether you're lover or a hater of reptiles, you can't help but get excited with Clint!
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[@ClintsReptiles]

Need a last minute gift for the dinosaur lover in your life (even if that is you)? clints-reptiles.creator-spring.com/listing/what-s-your-favo-december-2022?product=212 Merry Christmas and Happy Dinosaur December!

[@forrestcrabbe]

Would it be more accurate to say that birds are extant dinosaurs, not evolved from dinosaurs? Happy festivus 🤘y'all have a badass day🤘🎄🎅🎄🤘🍻🤘

[@wannaim6958]

Great explanation. However, I am still wondering why not even a single lineage of Pterosaurs survive the mass-extinction caused by asteroid? I mean, they could fly. And some are small in size too. Perhaps the argument would be that they were meat eaters or insectivores, but still there are "beaked" birds that survive exclusively on meaty diets.

[@tonyto8384]

link doesnt work for me

[@zacharymoss2994]

how about also beaked birds also out-competed toothed birds for arthropod based foods and corpses of dead animals

[@vivalavivarium]

sad to see dinosaur december ending, I really wanted to hear you talk about the spinosaur debate of how aquatic their lifestyle was. personally I'm a water wading guy

[@sampagano205]

The adaptive radiation of birds after the asteroid also indicates there were very few species of birds that even made it.

[@mikepotter5718]

I’ve read on several sites, that it was a small quail like bird. Any other candidates?

[@Galaxia7]

@@mikepotter5718 the big groups of modern birds, like the big groups of mammals, had already branched off before the KT extinction. But those groups aren't many, maybe five tops? The rattites, the galliforms etc. So there were a handful of representatives of each of these groups who survived. And like with mammals, there were a lot of strange and more distantly related birds who didn’t make it like the enantiornithes who were the most abundant kind of birds in the Mesozoic. None of the enantiornithes survived the KT extinction.

[@suchnothing]

@@Galaxia7 there are 3 main branches of birds alive today, one that contains big flightless birds like ostriches, one that contains water and land fowl like ducks and chickens, and one that contains all other birds. As you said, these branches all existed before the KT extinction. Each branch likely had at least a few survivors. The branch that contains most birds alive today had an explosion in diversity right after the KT extinction. There were very few of them to begin with, and they mostly survived and did extremely well when life began to rebound. I found a really cool paper on the evolution of the large flightless birds, and its not trapped behind a paywall. There's a couple of cool visualizations of their lineages. Their study suggests there were about 4 - 6 survivors of the KT extinction, which further diversified after it. The paper is called "Phylogenomics and Morphology of Extinct Paleognaths Reveal the Origin and Evolution of the Ratites" in case you want to check it out. As for the third group, waterfowl and landfowl both existed before the KT. Landfowl had at least 3 lineages that survived KT and still exist today. I think waterfowl may have only had one survivor, but my quick googling didn't turn up a definite answer. I got really into this recently because of a mobile game I'm playing called "Cells". The game showed me that penguins are more closely related to hummingbirds than they are to ducks and geese, and I was like "HUUUUUHHHHHH" and ended up down a deep rabbit hole of bird evolution 😆

[@scottmccrea1873]

@@Galaxia7 water birds (it seems to me) must have been all wiped out for obvious reasons. Enantiornithes seem to have been largely aquatic ergo gone, baby, gone. Presumably avian water birds suffered the same fate. So the surviving gallifornes were chicken-quail-grouse like. Later returned to water to become modern water fowl?

[@NitroIndigo]

Aren't all the birds alive today descended from three species?

[@TheHothead101]

The brains and the fact that seeds can lay dormant for so long is actually the kind of satisfying answer I never expected to hear. Now it really DOES make sense why only Avians survived.

[@menalgharbwalsharq648]

This just prove how amazing of a lifeform plants are. They are the genesis of all animal forms and it's reassuring to know that there will probably always be plants to start the animal process again no matter what happen

[@Whatever94-i4u]

@@menalgharbwalsharq648 Well, I don't know about "no matter what" (if the sun were to turn into a supernova that would engulf our solar system, you can bet that even plants wouldn't survive that) but an asteroid? Yeah, that's not big enough of a threat to kill all life on Earth. It wasn't even as devastating as the Great Dying, after all.

[@AlthaeaMedea]

One of the things I love about the fact there were herbivorous crocodilians, is that this feature evolved more than once, entirely separately. Crocodilians are amazing!

There’re also a species of herbivorous spiders, a species of herbivorous bears, and also fruit bats and vegans, and all of them evolved separately.

[@AlthaeaMedea]

Yep, it's really cool!

[@lyokianhitchhiker]

@The impressiveness comes more from the fact that herbivorous diets are the exception than the rule in all these groups.

[@kR-qj7rw]

hell crocs evolved land living carnivore as a niche multiple times before and after the dinosaurs. they are good at adapting

[@sarban1653]

*Crocodiliformes

[@8888Rik]

I'm an evolutionary biologist (now retired from the University). I just found this channel, and I absolutely love it. This episode is extremely well done, and accurate, from an evolutionary perspective. Many thanks, Clint!

[@markcobuzzi826]

Adding to what you said about birds needing to be smaller for flight, I heard that this constraint initially gave pterosaurs an advantage over birds. Because pterosaurs are thought to take off my pole-vaulting themselves with their wings, they were using the same limbs for both taking off and flight. This is likely what made it easier for pterosaurs to evolve proportionately larger wings needed to attain greater sizes, while birds had to devote more weight/resources to maintaining stronger legs for a takeoff. Once the K-T Extinction Event happened, though, it appears that the birds’ disadvantage became its saving grace. Ironically, the birds may have survived because they were forced into smaller-sized niches by pterosaurs, whose anatomy was better adapted for larger sizes.

[@chrisdonish]

It's the other way around actually, birds and the larger pterosaurs forced the smaller pterosaurs out of small niche spot. Birds were superior flyers and very adaptable and the larger pterosaurs also started off small and competed with the smaller species. It was a double whammy that none survived.

[@ClintsReptiles]

Really cool! Thanks for sharing.

[@matyaskassay4346]

@@chrisdonish you're both kinda right. Birds are indeed the superior flyers, but only at small sizes. I'm not exactly sure why this is, but you can see how much large birds have to struggle to take off, while anatomical studies show that even the giant pterosaurs like Quetzalcoatlus could take off with basically just one jump into the air. It does look like the giant soaring lifestyle did fit pterosaurs more, which was why birds had to stay small.

[@znail4675]

OP got it mostly right, but it's a bit simpler to think about that as a bird uses different muscles to fly and to walk, so would a twice as large bird need both twice as large wing muscles and twice as large leg muscles. That limits how large a bird can get while being able to both fly and walk. But birds did not out compete all smaller Pterosaurs as there were some of them still around by the extinction event. But there was another factor, Pterosaurs were predators. Predatory birds pretty much died out as well, modern birds of prey are closely related for a reason. There was one food source that was available for small birds, seeds in the ground.

[@paurushbhatnagar8100]

​@@znail4675 u r absolutely right. Extinction event made food a scarce resources so birds that were small and could eat seeds were able to survive. Mammals too were small and could make it from eating either dead plants or scavenging. Idk Clint should make video on why mammals survived.

[@ztyhurst]

Clint is my hero. My 6 year old daughter gets so much knowledge about biology and dinosaurs from him.

[@VidelxSpopovich]

He’s secretly a drunken lawyer called Nick Rekieta by night.

[@nickh495]

I know they didn’t go extinct but when the asteroid hit it was the equivalent of killing most birds with one stone 😂

[@ClintsReptiles]

That's very clever!

[@gupadre8255]

@@ClintsReptilesI’ll say!

[@jevinday]

I was raised Mormon, I am no longer Mormon but I just want to say that it makes me happy that there are Mormons who don't believe the earth is 6000 years old. My uncle taught one of my primary classes when I was like 9 and one day he tried to tell us that the earth is 6000 years old and God put dinosaur fossils on earth to test our faith 😑 and then when I went into high school my mom tried to convince when I took biology that evolution isn't real. It was honestly one of the things that made me really angry at the church

[@sophia-helenemeesdetricht1957]

I was raised Lutheran and not the kind you're thinking of, the psycho kind, and they tried to teach me the same stuff. Thing is, as much of a dinosaur kid as I was, I couldn't and still can't visually identify Campanian or Maastrichtian rock? But they didn't even know what that meant, so I could talk big sciencey circles around them so I knew why their whole thing was obvious lies. My parents were not amused.

[@artninja2579]

As someone raised in a strict christian sect (hello women should never preach to men, women should obey their husbands and only raise the children given to them by their husband ), I’ve never understood this kind of thinking. You’re trying to tell me that your faith in your god is so weak that you assume anything that doesn’t fit in your paradigm must mean god is testing you, rather than possibly trying to show you the hard work he put in to make this world for us to live in?? (That is a general you, not you specifically.) The christian faith says god created the universe in 6 days. The bible also says someone who preexisted the writing of said bible by a significant amount of time lived to be almost 1,000 years old, while the Bible was both written by and then translated time and again by humans who were a product of their time. So i will absolutely take the specifics with a grain of salt while still trying to live by the guidelines of being kind to others and so forth. Which is, i suppose, why i am no longer a part of an organized religion these days.

[@matthewphilip2609]

Raised christian too dad told me i couldnt be a paleantologist because he didnt believe in dinosaurs 😢

[@LordCrate-du8zm]

I was raised (and still am) a catholic. My parents taught me that I should always be curious and learn more about the world around me. I love dinosaurs and they supported my interests. We watched so many prehistory documentaries…

[@natalieschreiber3804]

Same. I actually used to go to church with Clint’s mom

[@SonicBoone56]

I had no idea body temperature and crocodilians not requiring tons of food were why they survived. Hell, I think this whole video COMPLETELY changed my impression of the Chicxulub event. The way birds are today make sense with that context in mind. Also makes it terrifying to know we'll die very quickly if all plants died off

[@martinschlegel1823]

Well if really all plants die off, most humans will die quite fast. I’m not so sure if that would be the end for humanity though, there are enough crazy “preppers” that have food and seed stashes for many months or even years that my personal guess is that humans would survive an extinction event like the one that killed the dinos. What I’m not sure about is whether enough would survive to find each other afterwards and repopulate earth. But I would bet, that 3 years after an event like the one that killed the dinosaurs, the human population world wide would still be in the hundred thousands.

[@ettinakitten5047]

I think humans (as a species, not all of us individuals) could survive the KT Extinction. After all, we too can eat seeds - for example flour is just ground up seeds, and you can make a very basic bread from just flour and water. And we wouldn't need to forage as hard because as agriculturalists, we generally have big stashes of seeds all the time. Plus, with modern technology, we have the ability to preserve and store lots of other foods for a long time. There'd be mass starvation and conflict over food, but by the time the dust clouds faded and plants started growing again, there would still be humans who managed to survive on the food they already had stored up or stolen from others who'd stored it.

[@lindareed8265]

For some reason, giant birds with teeth sound just as terrifying!

[@chriswatt6835]

it really is amazing that we are here at all, as the amount of devastation wrought by the asteroid pushed even the species with the traits necessary to survive to their limits. With no foliage or adult plants, or very little, as Clint stated, the only reason plants pulled through is because of seeds, which also was a food supply during the interim where plant growth was impossible. Macroscopic multicellular life at the time came perilously close to being wiped out. Had the asteroid been just slightly larger (in asteroid terms) it is possible that nothing larger or more complex than insects would have survived. the world came perilously close to the extinction of all vertebrate fauna and all flora. the insects might have hung on eating detritus for a few years but even their survival would have been in jeopardy, unless something filled the void of plants in a scenario where the asteroid was slightly larger. Vertebrates came very close to being wiped out and those that survived pulled through with some luck and probably great difficulty. Had the asteroid impact winter continued for another year or two, that might have tipped the balance. We came very close to never existing at all.

[@Appletank8]

@@ettinakitten5047 I think the bigger problem is that humans are comparatively large creatures. Sure we can eat seeds, but we'd need a lot of seeds to keep our heat engine going, then spend even more energy wandering around to get more seeds. Crocs are large, but being cold blooded means they can just wait until more food comes along. Birds and early mammals were warm blooded, but being much smaller means they didn't need much food in the first place.

[@kat1984]

I love this series! Can we get dinosaur videos year-round? I wish I had indulged my childhood obsession with dinosaurs and mammoths. My mom said that we went to a mammoth dig when I was 5 or 6 and the paleontologist and I had a great conversation about mammoth teeth and skeletons.

[@ClintsReptiles]

I think we're going to make Dinosaur December an annual tradition, and I might need to sprinkle in some other dinosaur content at other times as well...

[@AlphaFX-kv4ud]

@@ClintsReptiles ever since I saw your video on the "velociraptors" in Jurassic park I was wondering if you would talk about the nonsense that is the dilophosaurs (I hope I spelled that right) from the same movie

[@ClintsReptiles]

It's on my list as well!

[@katbairwell]

Dr Clint!!! Dinosaur December has been a tremendous treat, thank you so much! Blessings of the season to all of the Clint's Reptiles family, you have built a wonderful community of kind, interesting, super rad people, and it's been a pleasure to spend another year in the company of you all!

[@kritiandsiddharthaswedding]

"You might have noticed that there are plants alive today" why yes, yes i have

[@-cosmicrogue-]

I'm a bit embarrassed about it, but the clips shown of cgi pterosaurs desperately trying to escape the falling debris as it slices through their wings made me tear up. Whenever I think about the K-T mass extinction event in any detail it deeply saddens me. The sheer amount of death and suffering those poor creatures went through is utterly unimaginable. It makes me appreciate the survivors so much more. We're here because of some lucky, smart, and brave little ancient mammals. The fact that ANY theropods survived is so joyous to me! I'm so thankful for birds! As Dr. Malcolm said, "Life..uh..finds a way".

[@spagamoto]

In a way it underscores for me how precious what we have now is. We are what remains from the apocalypse. Makes me stop and think sometimes, as I look at something so commonplace as a mouse or sparrow... We are both somehow connected in our ancestors surviving the cataclysm. In the words of Sagan, "Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand."

[@zeebest1004]

Those “poor creatures” were murdering each other left and right…

[@ultimatevexation8782]

@@zeebest1004 and? You know you can put cats in that category. And cats even do it when they are not hungry

[@seeing8spots]

I totally get this. Mass extinction really saddens me. The thought of huge percentages of life jsut.. vanishing is mind boggling but also sad

[@kR-qj7rw]

@@zeebest1004 yes you dumbass like literally anything alive today but heres an incredibly thing you might not thought about it ever animals arent evil they just live, thats like not caring for snakes or lions for eating prey and suddenly be doomed to extinction

[@BinroWasRight]

Clint, being the massive paleo nerd I am, I've watched a *lot* on the K-Pg extinction event BUT I think this may just about be my favorite. Very few videos of this kind explore the aftermath beyond the first few days. As always, you're succinct and easy to understand while not babying your audience. All the love, my friend, and Happy Holidays to you and yours!

[@ursanbear]

You're like a mixture of Bob Ross, David Attenborough, and Mr. Rogers.

[@ClintsReptiles]

Best compliment ever!

[@yetiexpert]

This is seriously one of the best mesozoic themed videos I've watched on KZbin! You should consider doing more of this kind of stuff. A good amount of information without too much showy surroundings

[@niIIer1]

Keep in mind one of the reasons birds are as big as they are is also their take off method. Pterosaurs could get much larger than birds and still fly due to them using 4 limbs to launch themselves instead of the birds 2, as well as those launching limbs being part of their flight muscles as well, where the birds feet only hinder flight.

[@chrisdonish]

Tbf some birds and dinosaurs did experiment with using legs as wings but it obviously it didn't work well, the micro raptors are one group that comes to mind that tried it.

[@anonyarena]

One does wonder how massive teratorn birds like Argentavis magnificens launched themselves without the benefit of the pterosaur's 4-limbed method.

[@bablo82]

@@anonyarena They probably jumped off of cliffs lol.

[@anonyarena]

@@bablo82 Yeah, that's what they used to imagine the gigantic pterosaurs had to do, until we improved the science on the 4-limb propulsion. The problem with the cliff theory for teratorn birds is that once the bird lands on the ground to consume carrion or catch prey, do we think they walked on two feet to the nearest mountain then climbed the mountains to get to the cliffs? Probably not. Imagine the vulnerability of a big juicy defenseless bird walking around on the ground among ace 4-legged cat and wolf predators. Even modern-day wild turkeys can fly. They are no soaring albatrosses or speedy Peregrine Falcons in the air, but they still fly. More research needs to be done to see what these teratorn birds actually did to get themselves up into the sky, because right now it is certainly mystifying.

[@thejestor9378]

@@anonyarenaThey could of followed the method of Flying foxes, another very big flying creature in the modern era. They use membraned wings instead, but they are unable to take flight from flat ground. So they have to find the nearest form of elevation to get the drop distance they need to take off from.

[@timothymoore8549]

I’m absolutely loving this educational content (not that pet reviews aren’t educational) I’d love to see you continue with more videos like this after December.

[@ckl9390]

The crocodilians wouldn't have necessarily had to wait the whole several years between meals. Given that most of the crocodiles alive today are opportunistic scavengers capable of eating practically rotten meat, they likely just slid from one exhausted corpse to another.

[@duskadown6751]

Adding to this is everything on land on was fire and molten rock rained from the sky, dinosaurs would most likely seek shelter in water away from the heat

[@Tine_of_Nice_Dreams]

The dismount from this video was incredible. Going from mentally traveling through the worst imaginable nightmare of a dead world, hanging on by one tiny seed to the next, to a big cheerful Like and Subscribe gave me whiplash. Awesome video. It's changed my understanding of the whole story.

[@Duncan_Idaho_Potato]

Clint, there's lots of praise for you in these comments and every bit of it is deserved. You are an outstanding science communicator. Out of the nearly two hundred channels I'm subscribed to, yours is among the small handful of which I never miss a video. Hope you have 10 million+ subs one day. You deserve it.

[@richardkelchjr.1954]

Truly an amazing video! Clear. Succinct. Straight to the point. Entertaining with Clint's witticisms. The best one in the dino series so far. Thanks for the great holiday gift!

[@vermin1970]

I always thought the birds, specifically beaked birds survived because they were uniquely equipped to take to the wing to move around to more hospitable areas and find food easier. It's neat to find someone else who also thinks the beaked birds were the only ones to make it, ultimately, because the only available food for years were probably tough seeds. I'm sure it helped to be mobile so they could stay on the move and keep finding the seeds. Any birds able to pass a seed was probably instrumental to spreading plant life back around.

[@wwiiinplastic4712]

Yes, and eventually later evolving plants took advantage of that. And anyone with a feeder in their yard knows all they have to do is look at the base and see the birds aren't 100% efficient at eating them all. Which is good.

[@persimmontea6383]

A bunch of bird lineages survived ... and birds today have the DNA gene to make tooth enamel... we don't know when each lineage lost their teeth.

[@yiannia7542]

That was a seriously good video. Succinct, to the point and engaging. Thank you!

[@ClintsReptiles]

My pleasure. Thank you for the amazing feedback!

[@nozr1383]

I'm 48, and I still love learning about our distant relatives! Keep it up!

[@Gavrilo-ww6nd]

This is the kind of knowledge you can use to impress people on a date😂 Love this channel

[@Aquarimax]

The best explanation I have heard for this phenomenon!

[@ClintsReptiles]

Thank you so much!

[@jakecleaver66]

Even though this extinction event was massive it’s still not the worst. That title belongs to the Permian-Triassic extinction event roughly 250 million years ago

[@PabloSanchez-qu6ib]

Humans: hold my beer.

[@mitkoogrozev]

Not for long! The way we are going, it seems collectively human activity might take the first place as the worst extinction event.

@@mitkoogrozev, “past performance is no guarantee of future results.”

[@thenoobplaysit6923]

You said that seeds were birds' most significant food source during the extinction event. Was there not the availability of edible fungi to eat during that time period? I figured that with all that decaying plant material there would be a ton of mushrooms to eat as long as they weren't poisonous.

[@frostbitetheannunakiiceind6574]

yee

[@amyjudy33]

It's possible, there's modern birds that eat fungi and fossil evidence of fungi exists. I don't think Clint was saying seeds were exclusively the only food source or that birds didn't attempt to eat other things, just that based on the data we have, there's conclusive evidence to suggest that it was a major source of calories for the birds that survived.

[@AngelEmfrbl]

The problem with fungi is they have nutrients and flavour, but they do not have much energy. For insects like terminates and ants, they can make use of fungi, but for survival reasons, fungi aren't 100% useful for anything too big. Fungi is more closely related to us, then to plants, and they do not need sunlight, which would be obvious why they've survive. The only hinderence to them would be temperature really.

[@mattm7798]

IMO Clint was a little too "matter of fact" in this video, like it was completely settled and we know for certain XYZ was what happened.

Which birds and mammals (other than humans and pigs) eat fungi today?

[@denther16]

Hey Clint! I know this might be irrelevant to the video but I just have to say you are incredible. The way you talk about reptiles and how awesome they are while also keeping things realistic is the best thing ever. It was you who really boosted me into the reptile world and I am so glad you did. Thank you for the amazing content and I can't wait for more.

[@kimpanther5110]

"big-brained beaked-birds" is my new favorite tongue twister 😂

[@johnwiles4391]

Just wanted to let you know (I haven't watched the video yet) that the thumbnail made me LOL and is the reason I clicked. Very good work!

[@alicecain4851]

That was very concise and easy to understand. Thank you. And Merry Christmas! 🎄🐊🎄🐦🎄🦜🎄🐢🎄

[@AllCanadianReptileGirl]

Great video. I guess it's true - Life, uh...finds a way!

[@ClintsReptiles]

Sometimes life is so preoccupied with whether it could, it doesn't stop to think if it should.

[@mortaltom]

Man! Clint's passion for basically everything living on the planet is super uplifting and kinda contagious. Thanks for being a great educator and entertainer!

[@theletterm8865]

Really enjoying this series so far! Usually I don't look at dinosaur-related content much (not sure why), but your way of presenting things in such an engaging yet simplistic fashion is appealing in all of your content. I could honestly recommend your channel to just about any demographic, which is certainly impressive. Keep it up, Clint and friends! Also, I don't live anywhere near Utah, but someday I hope to visit the reptile room and finally meet some of my favorite animals :)

[@missmaggie5238]

This was a great video! Really enjoyed it 😃

[@xtinctube7283]

Simply a spectacular video!!! THANK YOU!!!

[@ibanconnolly6658]

you must do a video explaining how the modern groups of animals we know today emerged from these surviving groups- eg. snakes evolved from lizards, but what did lizards evolve from? that'd be a great watch

[@eljanrimsa5843]

No, you got that wrong. He wasn't talking about reptilians like lizards and snakes, but only about archosaurs like dinosaurs and crocodylians. Lizards and snakes split from archosaurs about 300 million years ago, long before the age of dinosaurs. Snakes evolved from lizards. The first snake fossils are from the Cretaceous, though they may have evolved earlier, because snake skeletons don't fossilize well and we found very few so far. Snakes and lizards are poikilotherm. Some of them are adapted to survive without food for a long time. And some of them live in burrows, which may also have improved their chances of surviving the meteorite and its aftermath.

Snakes are technically limbless lizards. So, at most, snakes evolved from earlier limbed lizards into limbless lizards.

[@Blue_Anzu]

@ Well, legless lizard also exist today and are entirely separate from snakes, so I'm not sure if that's accurate

@@Blue_Anzu, do you know what paraphyletic grouping is? Snakes aren’t lizards the same way birds aren’t reptiles or humans aren’t tetrapods.

[@Blue_Anzu]

@ 2 things: I never said snakes are lizards, I was pointing out the existence of legless lizard, which are separate thing And birds are reptiles. Dinosaurs are reptiles and birds are dinosaurs

[@ValOrphey]

Amazing content! You always manage to keep things interesting and engaging. Can't wait for more! 👍

[@TheGesterr]

The other thing modern crocodilians had going for them was their lifestyle and habitat. Instead of being an active predator that had to traverse miles of territory and then chase down and hunt prey, crocodiles and alligators simply camp out watering holes that all potential prey must come to, and since prey is forced to come to the crocodile instead of the crocodile having to go hunt down prey, they're even more energy efficient.

[@sydhenderson6753]

At least the ones who survived. There were more wide-ranging ones in the Cretaceous.

[@andweng24]

Great video, however, there was also an advantage beaks had over teeth for birds. Its been noted that BEAKS AMONGST DINOSAURS ALSO HAD SHORTER INCUBATION TIMES in comparison to teeth or teeth + beaks. During a post-apocalyptic world, a shorter incubation time would also mean a faster time to hatch, grow, and reproduce the next generations before you die either from the poisoned skies or a lack of food.

[@wwiiinplastic4712]

Yes, teeth are a bit mineral- and energy-intensive to produce. Have to be careful with your resources.

[@federicolarrazabal2032]

Awesome video!!! Would've loved to hear you break down the three lineages of birds that survived (since they had diverged before the end cretaceous extinction event) being the ratites, the fowls and the neoaves and what those three lineaes had in common to makes them survive! (Its almost all covered in the video but people don't know that it was these three that survived not one and that seems pretty cool to me). Love the content!!

[@stornkolson]

These science ones are the best Clint!

[@petersmythe6462]

"and that includes the surface area of their wings" And muscles, and lungs, and structural elements. Size is often an advantage because of what it allows for chemistry, complexity, or combat, but physics usually is very harsh to larger body size.

[@petersmythe6462]

Particularly structural physics. Thermal physics can really go either way.

[@amyjudy33]

Your videos are one of the little delights in my week. ♡

[@scalpel]

This video was eye-opening. You have a way of getting through my dumb head and imparting information that I've heard bits and pieces of before but never really grasped it all into one cohesive picture until now.

[@markcobuzzi826]

We all know the real reason why all dinosaurs went extinct, except for the birds. A chuckwalla entered the first Ultimate Reptile Rumble held 66 million years ago. It puffed up and an asteroid came down to kill off all its rivals in the tournament. The birds forgot to enter the competition, so they were spared from the chuckwalla’s ultimate attack. Some of the other lizards, turtles, crocodilians, etc. were also spared, because they were “too big” to qualify for the tournament in the first place.

[@stylesrj]

Why hasn't that got all the likes yet?

[@noctisocculta4820]

This guy looks exactly how child me imagined paleontologists looked like. More shockingly, he's probably younger than me. Living the dream, mate. Keep up the great work!

[@blastfiend7478]

Some crocodilians also dig large underwater burrows where they aestivate and store food

[@eljanrimsa5843]

Preppers

[@transnewt]

another factor to beaked birds success in almost-hell wouldve been the relatively quick developemwnt of eggs. teeth take a surprisingly long time to develop compared to beaks, so beaked bords likely putnumbered other birds bu a dramatic amount when the sub came back.

[@AngelEmfrbl]

Another factor is the hardness of a beak is generally quite strong. This means the beak would have been able to peck at bark and chip away at wood to get to the few insects around.

[@707abhishek]

Always felt like crocodile surviving made sense but never understood how Birds survived. Thanks for giving a new perspective on bird survival.

[@seanbarraclough2484]

Yeah, ok, now you've spoilt us, I'd love to see a series Big Bang and/or Creation to present day. You research and explain mega concepts so easily. If you ever leave the hobby, explain the universe.

[@theaveragefloridaman3655]

I wosh this guy was my teacher in school. Bro makes ever last one of these lessons so interesting

[@chadgorosaurus4898]

Dinosaurs even attempted to take back the earth. For example the giant birds like Gastornis and the Terror Birds.

[@venomoussound5050]

Even when I already know about a topic your videos are wildly entertaining. Be it making me proud via confirmation or just enjoying your delivery of information. Amazing stuff Clint

[@jacescarberry8836]

Hey Clint, I love your videos. Would you mind telling me how the bugs survived? Were they burrowing species like cicada that stay dormant for years or was it through some other means

[@ettinakitten5047]

Probably a mix of factors. Bugs are poikilotherms *and* small, so their food needs are pretty minimal. Many of them can fly, too. And many can stay dormant, or at least have eggs that can stay dormant.

[@sydhenderson6753]

@@ettinakitten5047 And a lot of them eat dead plants, of which there was a planetful. Must have been a great time for fungi.

[@reelburke]

This is SO COOL. Like I always wondered, but no one ever goes over it!

[@MayaPosch]

I so feel for birds, being told constantly that they went extinct 65 million years ago, as well as being accused of being government spy drones. Re toothed beaks, I imagine that bats filled in the insect-catching niche pretty well later on?

[@ettinakitten5047]

Bats and beaked birds. Beaks aren't optimized for insect-catching, but they can get the job done.

[@88porpoise]

​@@ettinakitten5047And I believe toothed birds predate beaked birds, so until the toothed birds died out there wasn't much incentive to develop a beak optimized for catching insects as that niche was already filled.

[@jeffreywickens3379]

Clint is so happy and animated, he could make ANYTHING seem fun. :)

[@theflyingdutchguy9870]

it really is mind blowing to imagine how this impact would have looked. i would have probably looked insanely cool from low orbit

Low orbit wouldn’t have been a particularly safe place to be at the time of the impact. Much of the ejecta thrown out by the impact crossed through the low-orbit space all around the earth in its way to its reentry to the atmosphere.

[@davidec.4021]

Man Dinosaur December needs to turn into Jurassic January because these videos are amazing ahah

[@Brontosaurus_productions]

Crocodiles really don't look much like a dinosaur, the thought that Crocodilians look like dinosaurs comes from dinosaurs in pop culture.

[@danielcorpuz1873]

Suchomimus and his spinosaurid friends: Nani?

[@Brontosaurus_productions]

@@danielcorpuz1873, A Spinosaurids skull somewhat resembles the over all shape of a Crocodylomorph skull. Though a external view on the Dinosaurian will not look like a Crocodilian, they're still like any other Theropod, small scaled, lipped, bird eyed and the same foot scutes a bird has.

[@HavvahartKL]

I have been enjoying these so much!!! Also, the slow mo footage of an albatross taking off gave me serotonin

[@neilchace1858]

So are homeotherm and poikilotherm synonyms for endotherm and ectotherm? We're using different terms again now?

[@ClintsReptiles]

They're not synonymous. Tegus, for example, can be endothermic, but they are poikilotherms, not homeotherms. Endotherms generate their own heat using energy from food. Homeotherms maintain a constant body temperature. These are often related, but are not synonymous.

[@neilchace1858]

@@ClintsReptiles awesome, thanks for clarifying! I knew there were a few reptiles that displayed some endothermy, knowing they are still poikilotherms explains the difference well, thank you!

[@year.2521]

this man teaches me too much without me having to stress out at all.

[@Nagari2637]

Bird be like : "its big brain time"

[@ajarofpickles2826]

Always was wondering about how this was possible. Your positivity is infectious keep up the good work you happy soul you 😅

[@llSuperSnivyll]

I think it's the first time I hear you use the term poikilotherm rather than ectotherm (same with homeotherm and endotherm). Is there a difference between the terms or are they just synonyms?

[@ClintsReptiles]

They're not synonymous. Tegus, for example, can be endothermic, but they are poikilotherms, not homeotherms. Endotherms generate their own heat using energy from food. Homeotherms maintain a constant body temperature. These are often related, but are not synonymous.

[@lindareed8265]

I've watched and read so much about this period of time. But this is the first comprehensive explanation that actually made sense. Thank you!!!!

[@ASMRConservative]

The dinosaurs would have survived if they had gone to their local grocery store and stocked up on toilet paper.

[@ClintsReptiles]

Fact!

[@andyjay729]

Young sparrow: Aw man, seeds for dinner AGAIN? Mother sparrow: Show some respect! Those seeds are why we birds are still here!

[@FeeshUnofficial]

For reference, the Chicxulub asteroid impact was almost 2000 times as big as the Tsar Bomba, the largest explosion from a bomb detonation ever

[@joshuafairbanks5064]

Hang on for a moment I need to see how Novaya Zemla is doing

[@rat_dragon]

This is the most fascinating video I think y'all have ever made

[@JanetStarChild]

This is a fantastic educational video! I learned things that I didn't know before, answering questions I never even thought to ask; I appreciate that.

[@Uriahthedevourer]

I'd like to suggest a video on all kinds of giant extinct birds and how they lived and what ultimately took them out of the family tree :) Love your videos, Clint, never stop being you.

[@catalystcomet]

I've no clue why this showed up in my feed at all but I freaking LOVE you!

[@throckmortensnivel2850]

Another brilliant presentation! Thank you Clint, for the time and effort you put into bringing this knowledge to us. I had never before heard the reasons why birds and reptiles avoided the mass extinction.

[@SplendidSplendid-o5f]

3:05 moment was so cute... Croc: "I don't know..." Bird: "Uhm, are you recording?"

[@WatchDanReviews]

This was incredibly informative and fascinating, Clint! I’ve never heard that explanation of post apocalypse survival of certain existing fauna. What would humans have looked like at that time-a mouse like critter?

[@Kodama666]

dino december is the best christmas present ive gotten so far, ill cling to any chance to hear u talk about phylogenies and the history of life on earth, keep doing this! just make it dinosaur january-december

[@jeremyl862]

I love all of your content. What does it is your enthusiasm with anything you talk about and respect for all the animals on the channel. Thank you!

[@ABCHerping82]

Thanks ! I hope everyone is having a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

[@psychwardescapee420]

loved the guest star appearing at 7:14, even though he didnt have a lot to say

[@nedfrazier3328]

I love your lectures on paleontology. I know you're actually a zoologist but I think you're an awesome paleontologist too.

[@tim.a.k.mertens]

This is a really good video Clint

[@madguitarist63]

Not just seeds, but fungi too. Some good studies around fungi population expansion during this mass extinction since they don't require photosynthesis and had plenty of decaying matter to feed on

[@PaulLautenschlager-y2j]

I suspect that another size-related advantage for the smaller creatures that did survive extinction event was the ability to take/find shelter. Small-bodied animals like the birds mammals and small reptiles would have a much easier time finding sheltered areas that would enable them to stay a little warmer during the initial cold part of the event, or even find shelter when it got too hot or acid rain and ash was coming down. That would’ve been an additional advantage to their survival.

[@AreHan1991]

Fantastic. Thanx so much for your clear thinking and explanations. And the wonderful lack of Holywood dramatics and music that is so common on KZbin 👍🏾

[@TurboAzaDev]

One of the best and simplest explanations to survival I’d ever heard, love your videos man

[@Jake-bi8fv]

Clint! Longtime fan of yours. You started my journey of reptile keeping in 2018. I now have a bearded dragon, leopard gecko, crested gecko and a fire skink ! Thank you for starting my journey 🔥 Also quick question- you have alot of best pet reptile videos especially on skinks...would you consider doing a vid on a Schneider skink? These guys deserve the attention!

[@stukevideo]

I tend to think Crocodiles survived the K-T Extinction because their strategy of hiding in the water and waiting for prey to come and drink would never become obsolete.

[@HissyFitPetTherapy]

This was radly fascinating!!!!!!

[@naturewithjoey]

Really enjoyed this video

[@piehound]

The first reasonable explanation i've heard regarding animal survival in that ELE (extinction level event). Thanks.

[@AND-od5jt]

3:07 Nice falcon too!

[@natespurgat6245]

It’s a common misconception that TNT and Dynamite are the same thing, largely because of their use cases as explosives. However, they are quite different. TNT, or TriNitroToluene, is notable for the fact that it can be melted without detonating, which makes it useful for shaped charges for mining, demolition, and weapons. Dynamite is usually just Nitroglycerin absorbed into a material like Diatomaceous Earth which prevents its shock sensitivity from causing random detonations. Dynamite is comparatively much older than TNT but is still used in mining in particular because it is quite cheap to make. I’m unsure which has a higher energy density

[@Livoirienyvoitrien]

So warm and kind and passionate a documentary. Thanks a lot❤

[@carmenattallah6244]

So then after the extinction event, birds showed convergent evolution by some of them again specializing in eating insects, but not with teeth, with beaks? That's just fascinating.