How Did Giant Pterosaurs Fly?

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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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[@evansokolson9221]

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

[@lavona8204]

😂

[@cwxdaf152]

Pterosaurs 🤝 Chinese people

[@evansokolson9221]

@@cwxdaf152 🤣🤣🤣 LMAO

[@reuireuiop0]

And one gets the up yours from a ptero, you sure are f**kd

[@Dragon-Slay3r]

Yeah this! Right wing

[@niklasschmidt3610]

Pterosaurs be like: Chest day every day.

[@campkira]

the weather are not the same...

[@testedalexthegreat1759]

LMFAO

[@Sketchy_Dood]

Never skip neck day

[@lucankeyser2111]

Pectoral muscles 100

[@xyeona2145]

Puff

[@ophereon]

"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]

@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]

@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]

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

[@carpetmagic5713]

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

[@RagnarokLoW]

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

[@KayentaRojo]

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

[@am_Nein]

Agreed

[@TheKidOfOnions]

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

[@noahmccann4438]

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]

@@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]

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]

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

[@drenrin2120]

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]

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

[@besmart]

But what if they poop?

[@wholeNwon]

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

[@dcarbs2979]

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

[@Lucian_Andries]

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

[@RAClaus3]

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

[@JustinLHopkins]

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

[@akashwalavalkar7313]

#stopbullyingpterosaurs

[@urmorph]

As long as you're laughing WITH them, not AT them.

[@callmeandoru2627]

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

[@yournarrator6428]

This comment is under rated

[@miriam3848]

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

[@thehornwortofhornwort9832]

miriam poor crow.

[@dwaynezilla]

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

[@41linestreet]

I was looking for this exact comment 😂 thank you

[@isabellach]

Have you seen 8:27?

[@Jukelikesgames]

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

[@RaptrRamblings]

I can only imagine their mating rituals

[@StoneCoolds]

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

[@mechwarrior13]

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

[@dv9239]

@@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]

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

[@TheBassManBoy]

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

[@am_Nein]

Wait there was a banana?

[@calironnia6470]

When? I didn't even see any banana

[@minisn3066]

@@calironnia6470 0:31

[@newtscamander7713]

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

[@mongke8745]

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

[@alexandracenuse8762]

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

[@Dragoevo2]

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

[@hainesgamingyt9500]

True, so true

[@crimsonholocene949]

Ark’s dinos are inaccurate af

[@signolias100]

@@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

[@besmart]

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]

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

[@fernandocoag]

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]

Reptile???

[@maxximumb]

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

[@jjhggdcqz]

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

[@lermi389]

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

[@Ammar34567]

How about a T-rexterosaurus biting something in flight?

[@ThePigeonBrain]

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]

ThePigeonBrain Dude sane.

[@BlackSlimShady]

pterosaur

[@lemonenjoyer6410]

cryodrakon

[@Desklamp1234]

"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"

[@wtfooqs]

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.

[@gauravkotian3282]

I didn't know this

[@lucifer1493]

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

[@diamondmoonwolf]

ツLucifer lol, this made my day

[@The_Bruh_26]

I would have seen it all

[@VineetSharma1595]

All those airplane poop jokes coming to an end

[@ashenen2278]

Pterosaurs AREN'T dinosaurs

[@suzyfein]

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

[@Danilego]

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

[@evelynbrylow3624]

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

[@tonydai782]

No, that's called orbiting.

[@kavyon]

Great reference, bro. Douglas Adams would be proud.

[@guiorgy]

"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]

@@guiorgy XD

[@MINKIN2]

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

[@Suthriel]

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

[@tntbrine5237]

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]

@@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]

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

[@Suthriel]

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

[@lonerwolf6496]

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

[@tntbrine5237]

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

[@am_Nein]

W h a t

[@MungareMike]

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

[@veganchaatparty]

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

[@steveletterman7121]

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

[@MaryAnnNytowl]

@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]

@Chris_Wooden_Eye I have the same too

[@voornaam3191]

@@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.

[@unvergebeneid]

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

[@ScottyDMcom]

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

[@dentoncrimescene]

And getting distracted.

[@camramaster]

@@ScottyDMcom remember, it's "mostly"

[@calistohuettich]

That´s literally an orbit

[@thelastusurper6336]

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

[@SuicideBunny6]

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

[@raku8349]

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

[@Sketchy_Dood]

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

[@Rupcoris]

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

[@Sketchy_Dood]

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

[@claytonodonkazakhstans1335]

Wow

[@raikimaru2531]

pilot : fox 2

[@bakerzane3055]

Or at you

[@jakethesnake6169]

Ark players: ooh! I know this one!

[@testedalexthegreat1759]

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

[@kerrkristie]

Yeeessss 2k hours on ark over here 😋

[@heulwenrhosyn9625]

What is this Ark game I keep hearing about?

[@Elitus_knightus]

@@heulwenrhosyn9625 Realistic minecraft

[@heulwenrhosyn9625]

@@Elitus_knightus thanks!😊

[@am_Nein]

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

[@davidstout6051]

This is remarkably well done. Informative and entertaining.

[@nalikepanda4006]

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

[@mrbobinski]

Ahahahahaha

[@bruh5601]

Good one lol

[@MarceloB]

my whole life I've been saying it wrong

[@arrowsaurus7561]

Damn bro

[@camramaster]

Hahhmahahaha BEGONE

[@lucifer1493]

All 3 Giant pterosaurs sound like they were from LOTR

[@camramaster]

The sort of thing I would love to ride.

[@dandankovsky7968]

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]

@@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]

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]

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

[@drinkwater473]

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

[@MrAqr2598]

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.

[@Juntaski]

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

[@jacobandrews2663]

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

[@TheEggoEffect]

*Dracorex hogwartsia would like to know your location*

[@mikespark72]

And from Canada! woot!

[@hyrulphicsound]

@@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]

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

[@TriviaNight]

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

[@DaveBuildsThings]

👍

[@johnbremner4154]

Excellent documentary!

[@AxionSmurf]

This channel is friggin great

[@DenisRyan]

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]

Was probably a hobo

[@dwaneanderson8039]

You should have taken a picture.

[@watsisbuttndo829]

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]

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]

Thats hilarious😂🤣

[@caruzo9631]

is there any method to measure historic ATMOSPHERE DENSITY?

[@JoseGranny]

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

[@besmart]

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]

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]

@@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]

​@@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.

[@tastyneck]

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

[@tklyte]

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

[@richardhall1667]

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.

[@alexv3357]

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

[@rebeccaboyer9924]

We’re all related 😳

[@gigachadrick7723]

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

[@rogersledz6793]

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

[@Mathewrath]

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]

What is the other one?

[@Mathewrath]

@@franzkissel1369 It's said in the video

[@siyacer]

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

[@nerd_alert927]

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]

The transformers reference was amazing😁😁

[@besmart]

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

[@escapementality5361]

@@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]

@@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

[@arunghadi]

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

[@dannyboots]

Batman

[@darkmistico]

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]

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

[@erikperhs_]

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

[@casmen90]

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

[@Cammymoop]

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]

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.

[@twincast2005]

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.

[@loverock220591]

More episodes like this!! So interesting!

[@fns58]

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

[@valentinyi3987]

Real question is how the hell they lift those heads

[@mikeciul8599]

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

[@Rupcoris]

same as giraffes, i guess(?)

[@andito9973]

NEVER SKIP NECK DAY

[@mechwarrior13]

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]

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

[@kaitlynjocarroll]

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

[@sparagnino]

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

[@pawlakar]

Love watching your videos 💜💜💜

[@Percy1800sDetective]

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!

[@pigadmiral6642]

Ooh a fantasy novel

[@lllllllllllll702]

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

[@micahbirdlover8152]

great job joe👏

[@fredfghj1]

Love this video! More crazy animals please!

[@Composite7248]

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

[@besmart]

👏👏👏

[@RickMason-yj7pv]

Ptraumatic to be sure

[@stefansauvageonwhat-a-twis1369]

Petrifying, or even petrifying

[@micahbirdlover8152]

@@besmart hey Joe are a parent 🤔

[@Turabbo]

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 KZbin auto captioning option isn't there either! 🙁 Oh no!

[@Ktulu789]

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

[@malaren89]

THIS IS SO AWESOME

[@amysison-bullena4701]

I love your pen organizer by the wall!

[@NewMessage]

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

[@zzzeyder]

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

[@aurapain5757]

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

[@anuragchakraborty3432]

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

[@zzzeyder]

@@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

[@issolomissolom3589]

Pbs eons had a nice video about it too Thanks for the video 👍

[@Khaled-wp3vb]

this episode was hella fun ♥

[@luizfernando4497]

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

[@fappjack0067]

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

[@sanjaykumar7218]

this is very nice video

[@Mad_Intalect]

I enjoyed this, funny and informative.

[@kramermariav]

Anhanguera is like a head with wings, lol

[@q-miiproductions878]

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

[@changes8]

Lol “it might eat the kids” this channel, after two videos has become my new favourite.

[@lyricsaddict3675]

love the show!!

[@Bonzothefifth]

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.

[@EverythingScience]

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

[@b3z3jm3nny]

pter means wing, it’s the same pter as in helico-pter :)

[@newtscamander7713]

Because Greek

[@niklasschmidt3610]

No you can't just put strange letters in every scientific name. - Haha, greek and latin go brrr

[@amehak1922]

It urinated alot.

[@EverythingScience]

@@amehak1922 u right

[@notnix4]

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

[@devanshujha8121]

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

[@censusgary]

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

[@austinshoupe3003]

Aren't all binomial terms pretending to be Latin?

[@rogeriopenna9014]

It looks like it's based on Aztec.

[@isaaclopez63]

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]

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

[@rogeriopenna9014]

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!

[@Lena_Dt]

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

[@2011SoxMD36]

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.

[@Ballin4Vengeance]

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

[@flibbertigibbet6200]

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

[@dannyboots]

Better have insurance

[@rauntche]

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

[@mechwarrior13]

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

[@matushonko7223]

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

[@shakyongsim]

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

[@miguelcabreracastro6968]

you didnt know? now you know, dinosaurs just adapted and evolved :D

[@ryangardner4274]

Sometimes realaty is disaponting

[@forrestgump8717]

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

[@gormauslander]

Seems unbalanced

[@dantan1249]

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.

[@himarkalvin]

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.

[@paytonhennessey9845]

I would love to see a video about whether there will be giant flying animals or giant land animals in the future

[@CJsbro1]

Last time I was this early the dinosaurs roamed the earth

[@CJsbro1]

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]

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

[@dannyboots]

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

[@micahbirdlover8152]

I love learning 🤗

[@monkeytron5061]

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