Megaraptorans Never Skipped Arm Day

Megaraptorans were an interesting and unique lineage of Theropod Dinosaurs, possessing elongated, powerful forelimbs and large claws. Their odd combination of features have lead to multiple different classifications, including as Allosauroids, Tyrannosaurs or basal Coelurosaurs. New discoveries have only added to the confusion.
Twitter: @DrPolaris3
www.deviantart.com/drpolaris/
All copyrighted images/footage/music is protected under Fair Use for reasons of criticism, commentary, social satire, and education.
All copyrighted images belong to their respected owners. Please notify me if I neglected to credit your work in the video.
All copyrighted footage and images in this video are protected under FAIR USE for reasons of Commentary, Education, Criticism, Parody, and Social Satire.
Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research.
Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
Educational use tips the balance in favour of fair use.
This means, copyrighted images can be displayed, even without the owner’s permission. If I neglected to give the copyright owners credit, please inform me and I will give you the appropriate credit.
All video/game/image/music content is recorded and edited under fair use rights for reasons of commentary, education, and social satire.

[@needfoolthings]

Megaraptorans are also well known for their intelligence as an arm was found right next to a remote control.

[@dr.polaris6423]

Haha good one!

[@kateaveryavery1342]

Like you're profile pic.

[@needfoolthings]

@@kateaveryavery1342 Reminds me of someone else's.

[@nomad8473]

Lol. Ty

[@katrinakollmann5265]

Giggle

[@veggieboyultimate]

Mistaking the giant claw as a sickle claw on the foot when it was part of the arm, kinda reflects how we mistook the thumb spike of Iguanodon as a horn

[@darkiler6663]

Rex: skip arm day Spino: skip leg day Megaraptor: I don’t have the size the status and de force but I NEVER SKIP NOTHING

[@mhdfrb9971]

Well they have low bite force

[@lhamaseveramenteirritada9760]

Carno: What's the "arm day"?

[@firetools]

I think the Megataptorans are becoming my favorite theropod group.

[@extraordinarytv5451]

First time?

[@allstufftrainssa3618]

I agree these dinosaurs are badass and should make movie appearences in the near future

[@UntaperedLeech]

megarats

[@irmaosmatos4026]

southern continent dinosaurs>>northern continent dinosaurs

[@camacakegd3714]

And now in 2022, the largest member of this group, Maip, was discovered.

[@paintbrush3554]

1:21 THICC BODIED THERAPODS

[@bendykirby4828]

Big arms, weak bite. So they're like reverse tyrannosaurs.

[@isaacbruner65]

Could be some sort of evolutionary trade-off, no point having strong jaw muscles if you don't primarily rely your jaws to kill prey.

[@mhdfrb9971]

Big arms can't beat Strong bite

[@grahamstrouse1165]

@@mhdfrb9971 Clearly you’ve never seen Sylvester Stallone in “Over the Top!”

[@mhdfrb9971]

@@grahamstrouse1165 lol that's my childhood movie of course I had watch it

[@noxturn8620]

@@mhdfrb9971you’ve never seen an ant eater fight a jaguar

[@IAteTheAntiChrist]

This channel needs a shirt line: “Very Scrappy Remains.”

[@majungasaurusaaaa]

Slender skulls, small teeth, long, muscular arms with impressive claws. They lived alongside abelisaurs that had no arms. Obvious niche partitioning there.

[@georgeuferov1497]

Not really, abelisaurids clearly prevailed in this evolutionary race

[@majungasaurusaaaa]

@@georgeuferov1497 I wish we had enough fossils to get a good picture of the south. At this point "clearly" isn't a word I would use.

[@Ozraptor4]

@@georgeuferov1497 How so? Megaraptorids persist to the end of the Cretaceous in South America (present in Maastrichtian of the Bauru Basin, Brazil alongside the abelisaurid Thanos). No evidence of abelisaurids in Australia where megaraptorids are the only large LK theropods (at least up till the Turonian where the terrestrial fossil record ends). Abelisaurids appear to have been the dominant LK predators only in Africa, India & western Europe.

[@georgeuferov1497]

@@Ozraptor4 ouch, sorry, you're right

[@N0sf3r4tuR1s3n]

Definite niche partitioning, the paleoecology for both clades would thus be different. Different prey, different hunting strategies. We have known about abelisaurids for longer, so their paleoecology is better understood. I suppose the research on the megaraptors paleoecology will improve in time, but they definitely would have grappled their prey with those arms and claws. Perhaps cooperative hunting of larger prey? I believe that abelisaurids are sometimes regarded as Cretaceous cheetah analogs, at least as far as really powerful legs for chasing down smaller prey, and then dispatching them with that pitbull like head. These would instead rely much more on their arms, perhaps several of them working to disembowel and attack limbs of prey larger than the individual animals. Though I have no definitive evidence at this time for cooperative hunting, perhaps they attacked prey similar to their own size individually. The evidence we need, of course, are skeletons of prey that bare clear signs that one of these killed it. Unfortunately such skeletons are not as common as we would like in the fossil record.

[@Czesin]

Fun fact there has been a second Megaraptorid found in Australia, it's currently only known from a claw fossil found in lightning ridge, hasn't been named yet (has a nick name, lightning claw) but estimates for the body size have put it bigger than Australovenator not by much though.

[@TheMrPeteChannel]

Could be a fully grown, long lived Australvenator?

[@Czesin]

@@TheMrPeteChannel Not likely as it was found in older rock than austo itself or it could be an adult who knows not enough evidence to make light as oh yet

[@puffinmcpuffin9488]

Thanks for making this video! I've been so curious about Megaraptorans, but it's so hard to find good information!

[@dr.polaris6423]

No problem!

[@thedarkmasterthedarkmaster]

Ninmravids were an interesting bunch, can't wait to see what you say

[@Chareidos]

Always got a headache, if I thought about convergent evolution, especially within genera, who actually have a common ancestor. If you look back far enough, you can see, that animals with convergent evolved traits, do still share common ancestry. For exsample Beaks! Theropods, Hadrosaur and many other herbivore groups all devloped beaks with time. If you go back enough, you have to add turtles, many archosauromorhps and considering modern fish having beaks, you beginn to think. Could be there some plesiomorph properties, which will inevitably lead to the development of certain traits, which occurs convergently? Would like to see a video having a deeper look into it and explain something from the inner debate about that. Backsails would be also something, but of course... the plesiomorph attribute would be the fact, that they are all vertrebrates, sharing already the foundation. It called the spine :D

[@terrybuckley2850]

Yeah I mean multiple arthropod seem to have “convergently” evolved to produce silk

[@Chareidos]

@@terrybuckley2850 Exactly! Who knows how many "traits" are hidden sleeping within genomes of so many genera (of i.e vertebrate), "reactivating" by selectional pressure? Maybe there is something like more layers inbetweeen genetic prädispositions and epigenetic factors, which only occur over bigger timespans, many genera apart? I wish there would be someone shining more light into it. What if "sleeping DNA" exists within "junk DNA" and has far more deeper connections of evolution? I mean, woud it not be beneficial for survival overall to have certain genes "archived" for whenever it might come handy?

[@herohamza1196]

Raptors have shown that theropods don't have to be gigantic to be scary or fascinating or awe-inspiring. They can be small enough to come into your house and stalk you like a monster in a horror film. :)

[@admiralcat3809]

These hands talons are terrifying ngl.

[@Grant_Scarboro]

Nightmare on Paleo Street?

[@dr.polaris6423]

Freddykrugersaurus!

[@nooneimportant834]

Woooooww, I'm so glad that I wasn't just really bad at Megaraptoran ancestry or something.

[@dr.polaris6423]

Nobody can really agree on what type of Theropod they were it seems.

[@nooneimportant834]

@@dr.polaris6423 Oh hey, took me a while to notice you replied! If it doesn't bother you, which group do you think they're more likely a part of; some coelurosaur group, a carnosaur-descended group, or some other sort of r e a l l y derived dinosaur? I'm more or less hoping they're related to Carcharodontosaurs to really spice up those dinosaur groups that survived the Jurassic AND made it to the Late Cretaceous(R.I.P. Diplodocids, they were always my favorite sauropod group)

[@paulw6057]

@@nooneimportant834 I agree on both counts, Diplodocids are my favourite group of sauropods and I'd love Megaraptorids to be Allosauroids of some kind. Not all is completely lost, however; one study shows evidence that there might have been an assemblage in China in which some of those groups survived into the latest Cretaceous. Unfortunately, it's paywalled and I don't know if I can find it again anyway.

[@dynamoterror18]

Rapator is still considered a valid genus of megaraptoran. That could change of course, it's just not dubious for the time being.

[@Spiny_21]

I don’t know if this is even close to accurate but I feel like Therizinosaurs and megaraptorids are more closely related because they both have sharp claws, long arms and were both bipedal. Another reason why I think this is because phuiwangvenator, and Fukuiraptor were the first megaraptorians the came falcarius or bepiosaurus but I feel like they both went there own family’s but are in the same clade.

[@mhdfrb9971]

Not really. They're just evolved independently but therizinosaurs claws are not really good for combat.

[@Spiny_21]

@@mhdfrb9971 yeah i know but they could leave a nasty scar if your not careful enough when your a predator but I do feel like dienochierus and beishanlong claws are a bit more suited for combat

[@Compsognathus09]

I actually like this theory.

[@jeffslade1892]

Tip - even if you are preparing this as a lecture module presentation it is about twice as long as it needs to be and scans like a shopping list. The "naming of parts" can be safely left in the written lecture notes electronic, leaving you to talk about the interesting bits and show pretty pictures and charts on the projector. Rattling off lists of names is for your PhD Defence, but don't over-do it. Why have they got long arms? How did they use them? How well did they move and rotate?

[@serbsi2922]

Will you critique a video if I post it? This is genuinely good advice

[@jeffslade1892]

@@serbsi2922 I've sat through an awful lot of lectures. The noise you hear from the back is not clapping but students slapping themselves to stay awake. The best lecturers always have a snappy, lively delivery. It is a given that students can read and write, even if they are still using coloured crayons.

[@diegoblanco7641]

@@jeffslade1892 I disagree with all this, I like the comprehensive "list rattling" especially in this format because even if you can't pay attention all at once the information is all contained in the video. I would much rather the video go on for longer than to sacrifice this detail for only the most attention-grabbing, diluted, pared-down version of the information. Snappy, lively delivery is not what I would prioritize over something exhaustive. Just preferences though.

[@jeffslade1892]

@@diegoblanco7641 have you ever stood up the front and given a lecture. Deliver a 'shopping list' and the audience falls asleep. Students have the attention span of a flea, they're quickly bored, but they can read notes. Delivery fast, snappy and make them interested.

[@diegoblanco7641]

@@jeffslade1892 I have stood in front of people and given lectures and I've heard this exact same recommendation but my point is that the youtube video format is different than an in-person lecture - the fact that you can pause and come back to and consume a youtube video at whatever pace you want makes the format more similar to a reference text than an in-person lecture and for that reason there's no need to truncate things. I still think that there's a drop in quality when you try and make things "fast and snappy" but in the in-person format the benefits of doing that outweigh that drop in quality.

[@anevilstripper6095]

Anyone remember playing as a Megaraptor in the PS1 game Warpath Jurassic Park? :p

[@thomaseasley2938]

Tales of kaimere has entered the chat

[@Brannington]

been loving your channel, guv'nor

[@eileenkite6725]

I noticed that the big hand claw looks a little like raptor foot claws, could have used a similar hunting strategy

[@hailgiratinathetruegod7564]

I still belive that Sauropods were carnivourous and in reality were members of theropoda. Theycevolved there long necks to hunt cave man. But died out when they finally invented caves to protect them.

[@Jonas-jx3kw]

lol

[@ANTSEMUT1]

Lol

[@andrewgan557]

Ha ha ha. Very funny are you an young earth creationist?

[@cliffbooth1620]

@@andrewgan557 I think he is sarcastic, look at his name

[@Gasmaskmax]

long neck no match for grug's rock hole and fire stick

[@theprehistoricprofessor9076]

10:30 I see you're a fan of Tales of Kaimere!

[@Jonas-jx3kw]

my favorite group of dinosaur

[@Aridzonan13]

Again, I'm amazed at the extinct species I never knew existed.

[@isaacthedestroyerofstuped7676]

Those Buff Baryonyx Hands Tho

[@russpaxman3660]

Absolutely fascinating, well presented. Not sure about the manacled polar bear?

[@oleandreasjensen5263]

Exellent descibtions of some of the most awesome theropods that have lived on earth.

[@colt8748]

We NEED a bahariasaurus video

[@thoth8784]

That raptor with the polka dot legs has got to be the worst dressed dinosaur ever.

[@Moishe555]

Ohhhh THAT's how you pronounce FUKUIRAPTOR

[@beneficent2557]

F U Raptor

[@nephuraito]

Can you do one exclusively on biarmosuchia?

[@canis2020]

The star of "Over the Top 2"

[@witheredshadowbeast5730]

never forget leg day, leg day is very important.

[@ceruleanclouds5871]

Thank you .

[@hoibsh21]

I like the Fuckuraptor.

[@aldenconsolver3428]

Dear Dr. Polaris, could you start putting on your lovely artistic dinosaur recreations which of their color patterns were obtained from study of melanocytes versus which are more independent artistic interpretations? At 15:17 their is a drawing of Murusraptor Barrosaensis which looks like it was uncovered in 1967 in San Fransisco. Which is fine and its a fun drawing but probably it would be better if it were labeled as an artists interpretation of the color and pattern might be.

[@dynojackal1911]

I have to ask, what is your stance on where Megaraptora sits among Theropoda in your Alter Earth series?

[@bencejuhasz6459]

May I ask,how much of the cervical vertebrae of these animals is known?

[@StrangerGamer10]

Good to know Im living up to my name

[@bartekdraszawk4315]

could megaraptorans survive to the maastrichtian period?

[@dr.polaris6423]

I think they did yes.

[@bartekdraszawk4315]

@@dr.polaris6423 so you can use them in the ausralian ecosystem on alter earth

[@dr.polaris6423]

@@bartekdraszawk4315 Yep, they are also present in South America on Alter Earth as well.

[@paulw6057]

Yes; there's two species/specimens supposedly dating from the maastrichtian that are awaiting publication (early stages), one is roughly 10 metres long and another a juvenile from a different formation.

[@bartekdraszawk4315]

@@paulw6057 from what formations are they?

[@ShadowLugia141]

As soon as I heard Aerosteon I was reminded of the game Fossil Fighters Champions

[@cosmo6122]

I love this channel

[@krisninnemanninneman2528]

And ive found pics on the internet and it had the killing claw on the feet not the hand

[@Eliras24]

How in the world those raptors became that huge btw. Is still incredible to me

[@baneofbanes]

They aren’t actually dromeosaurs.

[@Saurian25]

You do realize that they weren’t dromaeosaurids , yes? They were megaraptorans.

[@Filbi]

Did non-Coelurosaur Theropods have feathers?

[@scvnthorpe__]

I've been bouncing around the hunch that the megaraptorans and therizinosaurs may be connected somehow, but I feel little will come of this...

[@vassa1972]

Interesting

[@potsmokindino]

Just imagine if they’re confirmed to be tyrannosauroids.

[@extraordinarytv5451]

I'm only half way through the video but just a few things. 1. Aerosteon was 9 meters Two. Rapator (also 9 meters) is Australia's largest theropod and as you said appears to be a megaraptoran

[@Ozraptor4]

Rapator is nowhere near 9 meters if it is a megaraptorid. Rapator is based on a single 7 cm long metacarpal 1. For comparison, the metacarpal 1 of Australovenator is nearly 8 cm long while that of Megaraptor is 10.6 cm.

[@extraordinarytv5451]

@@Ozraptor4 idk what to tell you. Look it up.

[@Ozraptor4]

@@extraordinarytv5451 I did, the 9 m length originates in Long, 1998 which scales Rapator against Allosaurus fragilis. Megaraptorids have proportionately larger hands than allosaurids.

[@extraordinarytv5451]

@@Ozraptor4 oh, I was not aware. So then it is 7 meters? How large is it.

[@Ozraptor4]

@@extraordinarytv5451 Huge margin for error trying to calculate size from a single fingerbone. But it's an animal in the same size range as Australovenator.

[@Chareidos]

I wish the subtitles would not mess up the names. Was not certain what Sulorosaurs (what my brain was "hearing", and "Solar ores" read in the subtitle) should be refering to, till I remembered, that some countries are pronouncing C like a sharp "S" instead of "K", and it was Coelurosaurs being said. Feedback: Maybe adding descriptions into the video or editing the written names into the clip themselves would help a lot. It is very irritating or supoptimal for just watching a clip, when you have to stop in order to check, what was actually said, especially if it is about nomenclature about most people are not talking about, and whose who know the term, many had it only read on text, but had never spoke out the words. This adds alot of confusion to people, who never spoken out that word pronounced or do this according to their language. It annoys the hell out of me, that there is an west-east swap how to pronounce the letter "C".

[@debbys-abqnm4537]

Often to demonstrate size, your art shows the silhouette of a man or even a dog. At 9:19, man's head was eaten(?) by a comparison Australovenator wintonensis. Perhaps it was the same man at 6:29 who was being followed by a Megaraptor. For me, the most... "interesting" size comparison was of a Megaraptora with a high-heel- and skirt-wearing woman. Men wear business suits (5:50) but women in high heels will never outrun any of the dinosaurs... it's surprising how even poorly prepared human females still manage to outnumber human males...

[@stratcat3216]

great content. I could do without the cartoon polar bear images but.. great content regardless

[@grahamstrouse1165]

I found the ursaphobe! #BearLivesMatter, dammit!

[@stickthesecond5085]

so megaraptor is now an actual raptor ? and not a large oviraptor relative ?

[@Ozraptor4]

Not closely related to either Velociraptor or Oviraptor.

[@beneficent2557]

I need to see the phylogenetic tree. Or is it Cladistics? They have completely changed taxonomy since I was a tyke.

[@Ozraptor4]

@@beneficent2557 Megaraptor is now part of a large radiation of big predators (Megaraptora) that look like allosaurs with beefy arms and huge hand-claws. Unclear as to whether megaraptorans are highly-derived allosauroids that have convergently evolved coelurosaur-like features, or whether they are very basal coelurosaurs with allosaur-like features. Search for "Megaraptora" in Wikipedia.

[@roddo1955]

You are thinking of the gigantoraptor, an oviraptorid.

[@calsheridan8961]

17:47 .... The Cheat?? Is that you?!?!

[@calsheridan8961]

@Eldon's Gameplay Archive Ahhh, someone doesn't know their Homestar Runner!

[@beneficent2557]

But could they open doors?

[@Charlie-Charlot]

Clever girl

[@herohamza1196]

@@Charlie-Charlot hmm talk about indoraptor

[@Gabriel-bt7ix]

More like slice the door in half

[@thenewguyinred]

Megaraptor was the true Indominus Rex.

[@user-mp8wy8lp4y]

I say more of a irl indoraptor

[@PlainsPup]

8:20 - Neat to see a person wearing a church T-shirt and doing paleontological research. 🙂

[@user-mp8wy8lp4y]

Huh, a guy that studies dinos and believes in Christianity, neat

[@krisninnemanninneman2528]

But I thought that megaraptor was a relative to dienonychus and velociraptor they have the raptor name so this guy talking about them being derived as a tyrannosaurid thats odd

[@HogBurger]

Not all creatures with “raptor” are related to velociraptor.

[@Gabriel-bt7ix]

It's cause of the claw they found in 1998 and named the animal Megaraptor It was very similar to a raptor claw but it was actually from the hand not foot after more fossils were discovered

[@Huy-G-Le]

So Baryonix not Baryonix.

[@drandana3661]

Are these related to Therizinasaur?

[@beneficent2557]

More importantly, who would win an arm wrestling competition?

[@beneficent2557]

But seriously, could be a convergently evolved group of theropoda. Depends on whether they recovered skulls.

[@Gabriel-bt7ix]

No

[@carliegriffin7229]

💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚💚

[@DD-lm1gv]

That stupid bear pic is really annoying

[@GrantpaSwag]

Issa classic. One does not mess with art, but I will say jumping to it as much as he does can be a bit jarring compared to the paleoart.

[@DD-lm1gv]

@@GrantpaSwag Exactly. The content was excellent but I couldn't watch after a while with that stupid bear taking up the screen.

[@beneficent2557]

Ursaphobia? 😅

[@mamatuja]

Why do you keep showing that polar bear in the hat, Quit it.🤙

[@PP-xd9rv]

Bored