Prehistoric Breakdown: Tapejara

[@Yah_dubida]

I discovered this channel recently and I'm in love with your work. I don't speak fluent English, but it's still very interesting to see such well-done work based on any place or language.I have always loved pterosaurs, and as someone native to Brazil, it is a real pride to see these beautiful species discovered in my country being well covered and dissected, truly a job well done. Exceptional, congratulations, and keep going, science and information are extremely valuable assets ❤️

[@CyBromancer7562]

Based on their parrot or tortoise-like skull, Oviraptorid Dinosaurs are really good candidates for terrestrial frugivores. People often think of them as egg-eater or omnivores, and while that may be true for earlier forms, the derived and widespread families were mostly herbivorous, with the oviraptorids, who had broad, compact and robust toothless beaks, would have been really well adapted for consuming tough fruits, large seeds and hard nuts. The tips of their beaks were more curved and pointed, well designed for plucking and cropping food, while the back of their jaws were thicker. Combine that with their tongues and those bony projections of their upper jaw, I theorize they could have used mashing motions with these features to crack, crush and process their shelled vegetation before digesting it. This made up for their lack of molariform teeth or large quantities of gastroliths. Their long arms, dexterous fingers and curved claws would have also made great tools to gather plants and hold their heavier nutrient-dense food. For the future, I would love to see you cover more niche pterosaurs. I gave a list of options a while back, the Ctenochasmatids, Wukongipterids and Caviramids would be sweet! There's also this really cool Azhdarchoid (Azhdarchid relative) called Leptostomia that you have to cover!

[@erikm8372]

That’s true. Although, many extant species within the Psittaciformes and Testudines have surprisingly varied diets and fill unexpected ecological niches, too. Turtles and tortoises are a prime example. Aquatic turtles are kind of generalist omnivores, eating fish, tadpoles, and crustaceans but also some aquatic plants… the more terrestrial box turtles or wood turtles, and red foot tortoises, love foraging on fungi, fallen fruits, different plants, worms and invertebrates. Snapping turtles and softshells, and other more aquatic species, are mainly fish and crustacean specialists. Tortoises are generally perceived as vegetarian, eating cacti, desert plants, etc., but it was just observed recently that they scavenge carrion for added nutrients. Probably necessary in the desert or in harsh climates. I believe a desert tortoise was filmed eating a deer carcass. While most parrots are generally vegetarian or fruitarian, there are also those exceptions, such as the kea in New Zealand. As parrots, kea are already unusual for living above the tree line, in the mountains and snow, and also for basically behaving like vultures. I think they must have filled the niche of vultures on other continents, acting as environmental "clean-up crew", eating carrion and helping clean the environment of carcasses. Apparently, they didn’t wait for sick or elderly sheep to die, and would simply start picking at them, hence why farmers hated them for decades and they were misunderstood.

[@TheAnticlinton]

@@erikm8372 The kea has a very recurved beak, unlike most oviraptosaurs. Oviraptosaurs becoming mainly fruit and seed eaters makes sense how their diversification coincides with angiosperm diversification. Of course they were most likely omnivorous, but probably only occasionally hunted small lizards or mammals. Same applies to ornithomimosaurs. If even troodontids had a somewhat varied diet rather than being hypercarnivorous, then oviraptorids and ornithomimosaurs and tapejarids mustve been even less carnivorous.

[@AncientWildTV]

@@erikm8372 How does the dietary flexibility of species like turtles and kea influence their ecological roles and contribute to ecosystem health, especially in changing environment?

[@danielmalinen6337]

Parrots are omnivores and sometimes also eat eggs. And eating eggs actually has many benefits for birds, they have protein stored in them and the egg shell is a good source of calcium. So I wouldn't rule out the possibility that Oviraptor could have done the same just because the mother incubating her own nest was misinterpreted as an egg thief.

[@gayle4s383]

I really enjoy, and appreciate your 'style.'

[@silverfrostblade5452]

Love your videos so much, they are entertaining and informative. And about your question of the week, I think some Oviraptors could be frugavours too

[@Kurotitan7125]

Here's a couple species I'd love to see you cover Kaprosuchus, Daeodon, Eotriceratops, Albertaceratops, Barsboldia, Amargasaurus, Deinosuchus, Purussaurus, Wonambi, Dentaneosuchus, Anteosaurus, Estemmenosuchus, Titanophoneus, Vasuki indicus, Rajasaurus

[@andyportalatincarrasquillo5670]

This channel is amazing, thank you for all the research you do! To imagine these worlds is simply perplexing 🤍

[@maozilla9149]

nice artwork

[@martontoth2063]

I am curious, where did you get this 8:15 about the scleral rings? They are very common in reptiles (including birds) regardless of life-style. Infact the ratio between the inner and outer diameter of the ring can give us info about the day and night activity. Most likely the vast majority (if not all) of dinosaurs and pterosaurs had them, they are just not preserved very often because they are made of multiple small bones. If the majority of these animals were/are cathemeral than you would be technically correct, but having a scleral ring still would have more to do with ancestry. (For eg. no mammal has a scleral ring despite a lot of them being at least facultatively cathemeral)

[@hcollins9941]

@martontoth2063 If anything; it more than likely came from the 2011 study made by Schmitz & Motani, with their paper "Nocturnality in dinosaurs inferred from scleral ring and orbit morphology"

[@martontoth2063]

​@@hcollins9941 That would confuse me even further, because that is one of the studies that I'm referencing. And it does not mention anything similar to this. I might have not been clear enough with my question. I was meant to ask about the "scleral rings are most commonly seen in animals that are active during both day and night equally" thing. Edited it.

[@hcollins9941]

@martontoth2063 Ah, ok, makes more sense now. But yeah, he should have just emphasized that there’s research that suggests Tapejara was cathemeral; instead of saying ANYTHING with scleral rings is.

[@DustinGreen-t2k]

Please do more pterosaur videos, but preferably the ones that aren't much bigger the a person

[@TheMightyN]

People shouldn't fall into the trap of this particular pterodactyl digesting fruit. Pterosaurs weren't particularly strict towards their diets; both Dimorphodon and _Istiodactylus_ likely consumed fruit or seeds from time to time. Otherwise, Paleontologists and enthusiasts should uphold some practicality here and actually show the proof.

[@TheAnticlinton]

there was no true fruit during the early jurassic. also tapejarid beak morphology coincides with birds which are omnivorous at best.

[@GenghisDon1970]

feathers? aren't they more like some sort of filaments?

[@daffierpython7755]

Picnofeathers. Their old feathers so their built fairly similarly and have similar uses but nonetheless are different

[@Ottakring-us3xi]

who wrote this rubbish as now one those flying rubbish