Rauisuchians: Triassic Apex Predators

[@wcdeich4]

Maybe Rauisuchians died out at the end of the Triassic b/c the dicynodonts they preyed on tied out at the same time. The problem with being an apex predator is you need a lot of food to keep your super strong predator body going. Whereas the early dinosaurs were still (relatively) small & unspecialized at that point in time.

[@tyranitararmaldo]

2:05 The comparison looks more like a man having a bad day, when his pet Decuriasuchus comes up trying to cheer him up so he can throw a ball in the yard for it.

[@charlyluevano308]

Fasolasuchus, the largest rauisuchian archosaur to have ever lived on earth

[@xuanluu4873]

Imagine if the rauisuchians survived into the jurassic and cretaceous

[@dr.polaris6423]

I can imagine them producing pseudo-theropod like forms in a variety of carnivorous niches.

[@trvth1s]

Sadly the triassic extinction was deadlier than the kt extinction

[@RedXlV]

@@dr.polaris6423 That would've been fascinating if pseduo-therapod evolutions from the likes of Saurosuchus and Postosuchus had been competing directly with the actual Jurassic therapods. Though of course, without their extinction therapod evolution likely would've taken a different path.

[@jamielishbrook2384]

Imagine if they survived til the present

[@matthewsweeney1593]

They be more apex predators

[@mortified776]

Right when I feel a hankering for some Rauisuchian content, here you are. This is almost disconcerting lol

[@dr.polaris6423]

Ah so the algorithm is doing its job then!

[@dynamosaurusimperious2718]

Rauisuchian are my favorite group of non- dinosaur reptiles that we're made of mostly predatory hunters. Also this was a great video on these amazing predators,also hope your day is going well.

[@crossroads8370]

I hope one comes to the Isle or path of titans.

[@Piriphu]

@@crossroads8370 Same, I really hope we get Prestosuchus, Saurosuchus, or Fasolasuchus, they'd fit right into the mid-tier carnivore range.

[@crossroads8370]

@@Piriphu I would love to play one in the isle or path of titans running around on the forest floor ambushing baby dinos as I hide behind large rocks or inside of hollowed out logs or in large groups of foliage like large ferns or something. I think I would play it the most of any creature in the game.

[@benmcreynolds8581]

I'm still so facinated about the sheer diversity of crocodile like species and I really want a nature documentary made that focuses on all these other creatures that have been found to exist, instead of solely focused on dinosaurs. There is so many types of creatures over different times that they can really blow people's minds with by introducing them to people who haven't learned about our historical fossil records.

[@initforthepoints]

these animals look like Ray Harryhausen dinosaurs, I love them

[@raghaviyer3065]

Probably one of my favorite groups of Triassic archosaurs

[@adhamelmaghalawi_7320]

These are some of my favorite extinct animals. If you describe them to someone for the first time, saying they look like a mix of a big cat, trex, and crocodilian wouldn’t be far off. It sounds like something a kid would imagine but the fact it was real is awesome.

[@Croationman]

Bruh this guy cannot be contained. Polaris is too powerful

[@tgf2586]

I love this channel because i learn about so many cool creatures that just arent mainstream enough to be widely talked about. Thank you funny polar bear man keep on stuffing random animals into my skull my friend

[@Grand_History]

Bro I’m excited for that mastodon video. I hope you mention how crazy wide their diet was. I did a project last year on a paper discussing the huge variety of plants they at, stuff like flowering grown cover, some trees, and even aquatic plants

[@dr.polaris6423]

That’s really interesting! I’ll be sure to include that when discussing them.

[@Grand_History]

@@dr.polaris6423 if you want, I can cite you the paper I’m mentioning

[@dr.polaris6423]

Sure that would be great!

[@Grand_History]

@@dr.polaris6423 the paper is called "Mastodon herbivory in mid-latitude late-Pleistocene boreal forests of eastern North America" by Teale, C. L., & Miller, N. G. (2012). the research is done from samples of digesta collected in different sites in New York state, and it kinda concludes that Mastodons were so dependent on a varied diet, that the drop in plant diversity in boreal forests was a factor in their extinction. they even ate different plants in different seasons. hope this helps, love the videos. keep it up!

[@LuminaryRain]

If you like dinosaurs, you should definitely consider listening to "Phanerozoic I: Palaeozoic" and "Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic" by The Ocean. It's great prehistoric, big lizard-appreciating music.

[@Antaragni2012]

Thanks a lot! I am a brazilian geologist and this video is very helpfull!

[@dr.polaris6423]

No problem :)

[@scottmitchell1974]

A bit of pedantic correction: Post is in Texas. Post, TX.

[@connorflaherty175]

In addition to the creatures I mentioned in the comments of your previous video, I am also looking forward to videos about the short faced bears, entelodonts, odontopterygids, an introduction to synapsids, gorgonopsians, and the bone crushing dogs.

[@dr.polaris6423]

Great selection of ideas! I’ll be sure to cover these in future.

[@connorflaherty175]

@@dr.polaris6423 I forgot to mention the chalicotheres, brontotheres, and the megalodon.

[@bkjeong4302]

@@connorflaherty175 Speaking of megalodon, its longevity as a species deserves to be noted, especially since it was that successful during a time when competition from raptorial cetaceans was actually much higher than today (not lower as often claimed).

[@benmcreynolds8581]

They really had convergent evolution of their skulls with certain dinosaurs like small T-Rex or type of large raptors.

[@Sawrattan]

I've never understood why we don't have more prehistory documentaries on the giants before dinosaurs.

[@wesperkins290]

Because t rex go rawr

[@mhdfrb9971]

Because fossils from triassic are so rare and fragile

[@thelaughinghyenas8465]

Thank you very much! I learned a lot from this episode.

[@xemiii]

funny, I was just researching rauisuchians(specifically postosuchus kirkpatricki) for a personal project.

[@USAAmutual45]

Still remember when Teratosaurus was considered a early carnosaur. Good video.

[@cuspsoftheoverworld]

Jeez they look like a creepy cross between a dog and a crocodile

[@godzillakingofthemonsters5812]

So did BBC base their 6 meter individual on Polonosuchus, or were estimates for Postosuchus just that big at the time?

[@erichbrewer6403]

The position of the foramen magnum on the skull would indicate if it was fully bipedal. Compare with the work done on Australopithecines.

[@dantewhite9117]

Will you be about to do a video on Thalattosuchins or Crocodylomorphs one of these days?

[@dr.polaris6423]

Absolutely!

[@chicagopianou86]

So let me get this straight ... These are not dinosaurs? Triassic period definitely my favourite epoch.

[@paleojlk1]

Just one nitpick on an excellent summation on Rauisuchians; Postosuchus was named for the Post Quarry on the Kirkpatrick Ranch near the town of Post in West Texas.

[@jeffersonwagnerdessordi8958]

I think Rauisuchians didn't survived because they were large specialized terrestrial predators hunting midsized animals. When the habitats were deeply disturbed, their prey vanished, top predators gone extinct with them. Meanwhile, early dinosaurians were able to survive hunting insects, little game, and some of them also feed on seeds and plants. Crocodilians relied on their metabolism and quickly replenished supply of amphibians and fish. Our pre-mammalian ancestors probably took advantage of their ability to scavenge and hunt insects at night, and life went on with this new setting. This scenario happened again 150 Mya after that during the Cretaceous extinction and the ability to feed on insects and seeds using their beaks explain why only the avian dinosaurs survived.

[@sevenidols607]

Dr. are there any modern day places that correspond well with the ischigulasto formation? It would have to a warm lush floodplain with lots of araucaria trees. I was thinking mont panie in New Caledonia. But that area is mountainous.

[@johnhanover2229]

All about adaptation. Turtles bury themselves in the mud until it’s safe to come out the larger ones had nowhere to take shelter. The ones that became larger and larger as well as bipedal was a major reboot after the archetypes before them in previous periods.

[@gerrardjones28]

Cool! For someone who is interested in paleontology and lives in an area dating back to the trissic it's really fascinating not to mention its by Dr polaris

[@Tribrachidiumheraldicum]

Can't believe I JUST heard of this channel right now, you're on the up and up I hope. Subbed.

[@robwalsh9843]

These poor guys got their thunder stolen from them by the theropods.

[@dr.polaris6423]

Which is ironic because they were larger and more powerful than Theropods during the Late Triassic. Indeed Rauisuchids limited Theropods to rather modest sizes.

[@bkjeong4302]

@@dr.polaris6423 Theropods did manage to get fairly big alongside pseudosuchian archosaurs in some parts of the Triassic, but only in high latitudes; rauisuchians didn’t have such geographical constraints.

[@robwalsh9843]

@@dr.polaris6423 Maybe it is similar to how carnivorans eventually outmatched their larger and stronger creodont cousins. The ones who are more nimble and adaptable seem to win out in the end.

[@bkjeong4302]

@@robwalsh9843 Except that carnivorans ceased to be adaptable once they became apex predators. There is also the fact carnivorans really started being dominant in the Oligocene (with nimravids), which is actually around the same time that hyaenodont creodonts became dominant. The whole idea of carnivorans outcompeting other terrestrial predators in the Cenozoic is riddled with problems.

[@ReiTheRabbit]

would you consider doing a video on the American Cheetah? my favorite prehistoric animal next to Pterodactyl. 😭

[@Alberad08]

Really enjoyed this video - thanks a lot for sharing!

[@papakarrbear3767]

Horse racing: ✋😑 Postosuchus racing: 👈😎

[@emberjaxx585]

After watching the view about Thylacoleo, I find it fascinating that the all of these families end up producing a creature with very similar traits to that of a present day tiger. Quadruped that’s an ambush predator and one of the top predators. I wonder why it’s more advantageous to be bipedal though. You look at all the big time carnivores, I believe mostly in the Jurassic to Cretaceous like T-Rex, and Allosaurus. What does being bipedal grant you? The only things I can thing of is more powerful legs, which may allows you to be quicker(not sure though because those two legs are doing the work of 4). The second thing is that it would make them taller and maybe allow them to scare away other apex predators.

[@generalkrang7138]

My god those things were freaky. Cool channel :) Subscribing. Were they semi aquatic I wonder? Perhaps able to sprint on hind legs like modern iguanas

[@krisinsaigon]

i wonder if there was some kind of difference in their eggs or their reproduction that meant the large non avian dinosaurs survived the end Triassic and these didn't. Like maybe the geological activity then caused slightly acidic rain and the rausisuchian eggs couldn't tolerate it as well as the dinosaur eggs could and this tipped the balance.

[@tristanwilliams4180]

Ah yes, the Majestic Prehistoric CrocoDoggo

[@tristanwilliams4180]

thnx

[@xuanluu4873]

Cool video!

[@mrcheese9008]

Bruh finally someone does a videos about this species

[@thedarkmasterthedarkmaster]

They're like if Theropods were quadrupedal

[@dr.polaris6423]

That’s a good point! They essentially held a similar niche to the larger Theropods that would emerge during the Jurassic.

[@RedXlV]

If *some* therapods were quadrupedal, that is. Postosuchus at least seems to have made the transition to bipedal. Whereas therapods made that transition to bipedalism before they got big, rauisuchians got big first and were only starting to diversify in that manner when a mass extinction hit. Sometimes convergent evolution takes different paths to reach a similar result.

[@Piriphu]

@@RedXlV It's fascinating how several triassic pseudosuchians evolved bipedalism independently not only from dinosaurs, but from each other. Shuvosaurus and Postosuchus both evolved bipedalism independently from one another. It's a real shame that the triassic pseudosuchians died out, it would have been amazing to see what they could have evolved into during the jurassic and cretaceous as the dominant life on earth.

[@nicholasmaude6906]

I wonder if Dr. Polaris will collaborate with Ben G. Thomas in doing some natural history videos?

[@stefanostokatlidis4861]

Do we have any idea about the metabolism of those animals? Could they have an insulating body covering, or did they have crocodilian like scales? Is it supported any longer that crocodilians are in fact secondarily featherless? Could they gallop to chase after prey for long distances and do we have anything about their reproduction preserved? Also I didn’t expect that mastodonsaurus could be eaten by anything.

[@bkjeong4302]

These guys appear to have been endotherms (archosaurs in general were likely endotherms, with crocodilians reverting to ectothermy). And they could likely gallop (the quadrupeds at least).

[@carmelosaurus7480]

Yes that’s ok and I hope you enjoy your holiday

[@rkozakand]

Ticino, and by extension ticinosuchus, is pronounced with a soft c, as it is followed by an i. Thus in English orthography, you would have TiCHInosuchus. It is only hard if followed by an h, as that separates the c from the i.

[@Squeam9750]

Rauisuchian in the TN looks like a scaly doggo fetching a little dinosaur for iit's owner. Idk it looks unironically cute. But always a new video's a new like.

[@strongman5243]

if they survived maybe they became theropod like in appreance obviously.they would be more cooler cause they had scales

[@SocramOlrak]

Is that Zuldazar music?

[@dr.polaris6423]

It sure is! Glad someone noticed.

[@SocramOlrak]

@@dr.polaris6423 Streamers have been using WoW music because is not copyrighted xD Many games' soundtrack aren't PD: I LOVE YOUR CONTENT!!!

[@dr.polaris6423]

Thank you! WoW has some great atmospheric music so I’m very glad it’s not copyrighted.

[@Tuishimi]

The animal at 10:11/10:12 does not match its description... forelimbs 67% the length of the hind limbs?

[@hunterG60k]

The depictions of these guys reminds me of those awkward early drawings of iguanadon. I'd like to bet on more evidence supporting bipedality in these guys being discovered in the future.

[@dr.polaris6423]

I can see what you mean. It’s speculated that other Rauisuchids related to Postosuchus were bipedal but the evidence simply hasn’t been found to confirm this yet.

[@Sawrattan]

I think it's nice to think that some animals did look exactly like those awkward early drawings.

[@altithoraxperotorum5133]

Could you talk about sightings of late surviving mammoths in Alaska

[@Arousedsharktopusjr8941]

Caimans need this guy to make inspirational work out videos

[@minecraftian-zu3pb]

Dr. Polaris, can you make a video on the silesaurs

[@robsharer3134]

Enjoy your holiday!

[@dr.polaris6423]

Thanks!

[@stankystankyrat9575]

I'm so glad Vision from the MCU is doing this now

[@TheaSvendsen]

Have a great holiday!!

[@lahummer5759]

Seems nature designed a successful predator head design. To be continued with the dinosaurs.

[@kateaveryavery1342]

I'm wondering, what happened to the video about deinotheres?

[@dr.polaris6423]

Ah it got copyright claimed sadly.

[@aronthespeedster8110]

That's why we should all watch Dr. Polaris's videos before they are gone like the Rauisuchians.

[@Albukhshi]

@@dr.polaris6423 It's fair use, as I'm given to understand. Tried appealing it, or no luck?

[@dr.polaris6423]

I tried appealing it but didn’t have much luck unfortunately.

[@Albukhshi]

@@dr.polaris6423 That's a shame

[@cottton]

Ur channel is tooo undertrated

[@akiraasmr3002]

did Phytosaurs prey on Rauisuchians?

[@matthiasfloren2610]

Fasolasuchus is just scary Like if it was stil alive it would have been enough to hunt elephants

[@Piriphu]

It's the largest terrestrial carnivore besides large theropods, and even among theropods it was large. Had it survived into the jurassic, it probably would have been an apex predator, competing only with Allosaurus and similarly sized theropods. Dinosaurs like ceratosaurus wouldnt stand a chance.

[@danieljohnson2349]

Dr. Polaris 👍

[@akiraasmr3002]

@4:48 looks like a mix between a Trex and a Crocodile

[@jerichopz2620]

Cheetah gators: we were the best land predator diapsids Rauisuchians: hold my beer

[@bkjeong4302]

Sebecosuchians; are we a joke to you? Managed to hold their own against both theropod dinosaurs and large predatory mammals.

[@texaschainsawmass]

Imagine if Rausuchian and crocodylomorph and crocodyloformes dominate the mesozoic instead of dinosaur i wonder if they develop feathers as well 😅

[@Guitar387]

They look like ancestors of the Therapod T. rex

[@bkjeong4302]

The WWD depiction of Postosuchus was horrible even leaving aside its posture (it’s oversized and way too sluggish, and the “bite, release and follow” mode of predation is based on inaccurate ideas about how some living predators hunt) It’s likely that they wanted to reinforce the idea of dinosaurs being “superior” to pseudosuchian archosaurs, so depicted Postosuchus as an “incompetent” animal on purpose.

[@dr.polaris6423]

Yes it was quite inaccurate even for the time in which the series was produced.

[@Jmatad21]

No point throwing all this half baked info in one go. It is actually detrimental

[@gladysnunez4874]

I think I read about this in a book

[@vassa1972]

Cool stuff

[@mrcheese9008]

Dr Polaris could the Fasolasuchus kill a teenage or young t rex or Maybe a adult rex

[@tjarkschweizer]

Well a young Tyrannosaurus would definitely be too fast to catch and an adult... I think an adult Tyrannosaurus could squish a Fasolasuchus. It may be tough but T. rex was brutal even for a Theropod.

[@Piriphu]

Allosaurus is a much better matchup for Fasolasuchus. Similar length, similar weight, it'd be a cool fight to see. Had the rauisuchians continued to evolve past the triassic, they likely could/would have grown to even larger sizes, large enough to take on a rex even.

[@tjarkschweizer]

@@Piriphu Wasn't it implied that Fasolasuchus possible reached the limit for how big these things can grow?

[@Piriphu]

@@tjarkschweizer This is news to me, not that I'm doubting you. Do you have a source?

[@tjarkschweizer]

@@Piriphu I thought it was sad in the video but I honestly don't remember. Personally I would stand by it but unfortunately I have nothing to back this position up.

[@chicagopianou86]

7 meters Holy Macaroni Batman!

[@flioink]

A friend of mine is married to a Polonosuchus...

[@fryeguy7109]

when you get cheat codes for spore then unlock the t rex head to bypass all low lvl animals lmao

[@useresu301]

who's this "et al." guy? XD

[@brendanbotha4016]

So cool

[@irondragon1785]

Presto is the besto, at least to me

[@onedone2011]

wasn't apex when I was around

[@Scorpitarios]

Fasolasuchus and Saurosuchus. 👍

[@SouthPoleAntarctica]

well these guys did not avoid their pushups like T*rex

[@drago939393]

Were these creatures dinosaurs?

[@raptorzilla0710]

no

[@chicagopianou86]

Awesome !1

[@thedukeofchutney468]

I always wished these survived to modern times. They were like reptilian big cats.

[@alcyon7536]

Chadasuchus

[@papakarrbear3767]

Virginsuars

[@alcyon7536]

@@papakarrbear3767 problem Avemetatarsali?

[@papakarrbear3767]

@@alcyon7536 *baby rages*

[@kathrin-mariasamarrastehle6538]

[@williamchamberlain2263]

Weighty beasts

[@flaux8661]

rauisuchians i pronounce it "RuSsIaNs"

[@user-ro4cu7om2g]

Oh boy!? Soo many imaginary monster out there back then..

[@alejandrorivera1782]

I wonder if this guy is getting all this info from quotations cause I been reading about dinosaur fossils and they have never found a complete dinosaur 🦕 he speaks about them like he was there when they were alive 🤔

[@davidbarkin8269]

I listened for one minute, and then realized that this channel believes that a normal volume is creeping Communism... :( Since I can't hear it, I'm outa here.

[@dr.polaris6423]

Sorry about that. I’ll try and raise the volume in my future videos.

[@Bake-kurijra]

Imagine being a monster girl of one of those things

[@Bake-kurijra]

Ok I wanna be a fosalosuchus monster girls