The Pterosaur That Was Killed by a Plant - Ludodactylus

An amazing fossil of a pterosaur found in Brazil records the tragic and unusual death of this ancient animal, showing how important such discoveries can be to the science of palaeontology.
Join our Discord server: / discord
Support us on Patreon: / bengthomas
Follow us on Instagram: bit.ly/1PIEagv
Music by Geographer
Subscribe to explore the wonderful life around you!
Social Media:
►Twitter: / bengthomas42
►Instagram: bit.ly/1PIEagv
►Subreddit: / bengthomas
Sources:
www.pteros.com/pterosaurs/lud...
www.researchgate.net/publicat...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludodac...

[@rockerdax]

Imagine making such an embarrassing mistake, and then being remembered for it over 110 million years later.

[@powergannon]

Reminds me of a video I saw recently of (I think a dire wolf?) who is well known for being an excellently preserved specimen who was found trapped in mud with a broken penis bone

[@goldjozi1276]

@@powergannon Haha what was he doing??

[@Pssybart]

Kinda the equivalent of people from the distant future finding out about your life through a fail compilation.

[@madderhat5852]

Remember kids, floss every day.

[@sumirsookdeo9443]

I wouldn't say embarrassing. Probably tried to catch a prey that was hiding within the plant and got stuck... when he pulled out it got something stuck on the jaw. Or could've fell from the sky during a fight that resulted in this.

[@tracewyrm]

"haha what an idiot, it died to a plant" *almost gets throat sliced open by a sharp potato chip*

[@torutara87]

i once breathed too much, so i almost choked on air.

[@dianamations9371]

I once choked on my own hair while eating lol! Worst food experience of my life!! XD

[@airenvarela2099]

You don't know pain I have choked on my saliva so many times even god lost count

[@cdubsoptional7849]

Years ago when I was training at a former job, my trainer and I stopped at Doyle's bodega on Niagara st in Buffalo, got some pastalitos. The move was to cut off one of the corners, pour hotsauce down the resulting hole, and eat away. Good stuff. Anyways, we park the van under a bridge because he thought it would fuck with the gps system, so we couldn't get any emergency tickets on our break. I take two bites of my pastalito, and get a piece of grade f beef, that's drenched in hot sauce, lodged firmly in my throat. Could not breathe, could not spit it out, couldn't talk. I ended up opening my door, fell to my knees on the ground, and did a self Heimlich by slamming my open hand on my chest (luckily, I have disproportionately large hands), and launched the offending food particle out of my throat. The best part was that as I was almost dying, kneeling on the pavement, I looked over at my trainer, who was still sitting in the driver's seat. He just looked back at me, said "You okay there Charles?" and then took another bite of his pastalito. He just watched and kept eating. Dude didn't even think about trying to help me. Moral of the story is, you're really on your own out here in these streets. No such thing as terodactyl bros.

[@MrChazz10]

@@cdubsoptional7849 well there's no such thing as pterodactyls anymore, they all choked on comet 😅.

[@almazzagitov9799]

If you think you are unlucky, remember that there is a pterosaur who has been killed by a *plant*

[@edmjohan100]

What a noob

[@almazzagitov9799]

Dag Johansen As a wise man said: "Making mistakes is too be alive... unless this mistake leads to the plant in your throat and the unspeakable suffering followed by a certain death"

[@ian_b]

LOL *picks Deadly Nightshade*

[@blintscav]

But then it got preserved as a fossil and now will be known for posterity. That's pretty lucky!

[@user-lq4ct6dr5m]

I don’t remember that grass type are effective against flying type

[@eertikrux666]

That time when grass moves were good against flying types

[@colinmeijer6623]

This comment is gold😂😂

[@Sea_Leech]

When you notice the ludodactylus players could have increased their intelligence meter but they didnt

[@ryanhiggins8869]

Use razor leaf! Critical hit! It was super effective!

[@Naota-00]

Well done

[@ExistentialIntrovert]

Razor leaf

[@GhostycrewJaeger]

When they say Veggies are good for you

[@depressedgojisaurusrexandc5372]

See mom and dad?

[@hailgiratinathetruegod7564]

No, vegetal >:(

[@eertikrux666]

When you’re not a herbivore nor an omnivore

[@lantern_logic9676]

"Eat vegetables" they said, "Its good for you" they said, *THIS* IS NOT WHAT I THOUGHT I WOULD BE IN TODAY

[@fearlessjoebanzai]

They obviously are! If it wasn't for brave shrubs such as this one we would probably still be inundated with vicious flying beasts like this!!!

[@dstinnettmusic]

Imagine if you tripped and died after stepping in gum and that random cringe moment that would normally haunt you at 3am was immortalized in the fossil record.

[@TheCimbrianBull]

That's a big oof! 😂 🤣 😅

[@USSAnimeNCC-]

In The Future We have a human who fell to his death after slipping on gum and crack his skull on a rock Everyone laugh

[@kevinquinonez838]

Toy company makes pteranodon but with teeth Paleontologists: wow you're making a ludodactylus Toy company: what's a ludodactylus?

[@cosmopoiesecriandomundos7446]

Toy company: This is a pterodactylus!

[@MrChazz10]

Actually the palaentologist were more like, "you made that up, those dinosaurs didn't have teeth"....A few years later, "we found a similar dinosaur but it has teeth"

[@theofficialassmob]

@@MrChazz10 pterosaur* :)

[@MrChazz10]

@@theofficialassmob yes they are all pterosaurs. What is your point? But what I'm talking about is, If you look carefully at the start of the video 01:25 they have a picture of the toy and the caption just dismisses the teeth as the "invention of a far-sighted designer"... Pretty much they were saying they don't have teeth, and then they found one with teeth...

[@cosmopoiesecriandomundos7446]

@@MrChazz10 his point is that peleontologists wouldn't call them dinosaurs

[@carrier2823]

Imagine getting killed by a plant and thinking “at least no one was looking” only to end up being shown to an audience of tens of thousands

[@Ratciclefan]

How do you know no one was looking? XD For all we know there could have been a crowd of Ludodactyls who refused to help

[@hailgiratinathetruegod7564]

Ludodactylus: Iam feel very secure in my place in the food chain. Some plant: Iam about to end this mans whole career.

[@depressedgojisaurusrexandc5372]

I thought that meme was dead thank god

[@tommyjones7096]

BEN: "Don't watch this crummy old video of mine." ALSO BEN: "Watch this crummy old video of mine and see if you can spot the mistake."

[@theangelbelow88]

*me staring intensely at my house plants* "I'm on to you..."

[@madderhat5852]

House plants, "they're on to us. We strike tonight"

[@Candesce]

You know, getting stabbed in the ear by those big pointy leaf garden plants is not an *unheard of* injury amongst gardeners.

[@madderhat5852]

@@Candesce On the plus side, you could be famous in 65 million years.

[@DanteTimberwolf]

I have carnivorous plants so........

[@helgenlane]

That moment when your house plant is a venus flytrap

[@OriginalGlorfindel]

As for the theory of his death, I'm pretty sure he was diving for a prey item that then hid itself deep in the spiky plant. Source: As a child we had a very large palm outside my bedroom window with needle sharp spines growing up to 9 inches long, very narrow. The anoles used to live in the base of the palm fronds and used those needles for protection. I never saw a bird dumb enough to dive bomb into one but I did see them flutter ineffectively at it, feet outstretched, attempting a catch. Lizards were always too fast and palm too vicious. But I can easily see how a mistaken lunge with one's beak might impale him instead of feeding him. The resulting struggle would then break off the plant, and you have our specimen.

[@jonstfrancis]

I thought the same thing, after a lizard perhaps that ran into the plant. The other option I considered was if this is a fish eater that it mistook a floating leaf for a fish.

[@OriginalGlorfindel]

@@jonstfrancis also a good theory!

[@jonstfrancis]

@@OriginalGlorfindel Thanks. Would be interesting to know its feeding habits and diet.

[@ayiogojo5642]

Ludodactylus: "eat plants they said, it would be healthy they said, it won't kill you they said..."

[@danielli1814]

@Soge 01 This why I eat salads

[@oceanoccupant1761]

@@danielli1814 damn

[@Crownpanda]

Some people say its the first use of the word "bruh"

[@michavandenenk5167]

a true bruh moment indeed

[@Tempusverum]

“Oh yeah, I’mma have a Salad” - *Gagh, COUGH “Oh god” *coough cough* I’m gonna - *cough* gonna *cough cough* “Bruh!” *Dies*

[@hadrosaur-harley9623]

Imagine being one of the largest and most famous flying animals of all time , only to die to some random plant

[@depressedgojisaurusrexandc5372]

That is was not supposed to eat.

[@depressedgojisaurusrexandc5372]

@Depressed Gojisaurus Rex r/woooosh

[@SirEnd3r]

@@depressedgojisaurusrexandc5372 10/10 self reflection

[@sacrificialfetus4727]

Plants are cool, Too!

[@beardlessdragon]

Pokemon: "Flying types resist Grass types" Nature: *laughs in stabby leaves*

[@dynamosaurusimperious6341]

*Even vegan Pterosaurs aren't safe from the dangerous plants.*

[@dynamosaurusimperious6341]

Okay.

[@EveryoneElseIsWeirdImNormal]

It's herbivorous

[@dynamosaurusimperious6341]

Well,yeah,I can see why.

[@MrChazz10]

How do you know it was vegan? Maybe it flew into a big az herbaceous bush and got it stuck in its mouth that way. I once read this story about a guy who was driving and got a fence pole stuck through his neck...according to this logic he must have been a fencearian 🤣. Just because you have a certain something stuck in your mouth, doesn't mean you were trying to eat it.

[@dynamosaurusimperious6341]

I just guess

[@grahammantle8381]

ludodactylus: man this is an embarrassing way to die, but who's ever gonna find out anyway?

[@seretith3513]

No one he would care about

[@TheCimbrianBull]

That's a fossilized bruh moment.

[@toothclaw6985]

I found one paper that proposed an alternative hypothesis. "The frayed leaf margin in the gular region of the pterosaur fossil is interpreted as evidence of attempts to dislodge the leaf from the gular pouch, and the pterosaur’s inability to do this led to its death (Frey et al. 2003). This explanation is not untenable, but there are attributes of the specimen which seem peculiar within this scenario. For instance, the hyoid apparatus is preserved on top of the leaf rather than enveloping it. Evidently at least this part of the jaw apparatus - which supports much of the throat tissue supposedly stabbed and stuck to the plant material - was not significantly attached to the leaf itself. A discussion could be had about the likelihood of the hyoid breaking free after the leaf was embedded, how detachment of the skull from the body might have disrupted the throat region, and so on. However, this would be no more testable than existing interpretations of this specimen, and therefore of little value to those wanting to understand pterosaur behaviour, diets and foraging methods. It may be most sensible to consider any explanation of this unusual fossil association as conjectural: this pterosaur may have made a fatal mistake when attempting to swallow a leaf, or it may not." sci-hub.tw/10.1144/SP455.3

[@Melody_Raventress]

It’s always a delight to come across individuals. Really makes you think of them as organisms that lived and died, rather than a bunch of bone fragments.

[@Silverfirefly1]

There are plants like this here in the pine forests of Spain. The base of the leaf in the picture is where it attached to the plant, it is very thick and fibrous like wood. The points are very fine and can be hard to judge when you are close to it, and the leaf edges are like razors. More than once I have been walking and turned to speak to a friend, only to turn back around and be tapped on the sunglasses by a sharp point. You should always wear eye protection and know your balance near these plants. I'm not surprised that animals can misjudge where the points are.

[@andrewpaige1194]

That’s why I love fossils with predation marks, and signs of damage(although I don’t have any fossils of broken bones/healed wounds/infections), cause they tell an actual story, as well as just a description of the animal.

[@slitheringswamp5352]

If you've ever been cut by the sharp edge of a leaf or a blade of grass, you know this reptile's pain

[@janpaolobagares7319]

I could only imagine the pain it went through while it was still alive with the plant stuck in its mouth. Poor pterosaur.

[@tomsanders9106]

Fascinating. Almost makes them seem more alive when you can see how they have died. Unbelievable find.

[@xkoala303x]

Millions of years later, plants still use this attack, albeit on a smaller scale against humans, who use pins to dig them out of their flesh.

[@fishguy3101]

That plant must have like: “ I just slain a dragon”

[@PlainsPup]

Interesting fossil! Looks like there are two other cool details in it: 1) The Ludodactylus’s hyoid bone, preserved offset from the lower jaw. 2) There’s a little sardine-like fish preserved between its jaws, too! Probably just incidental, but neat clue about the environment.

[@Texas240]

1:27 toy manufacturer's accidental prediction is realized lol

[@lucasivanov7824]

Happy to see some ancient brazilian creatures getting some light, keep up with the great content ;)

[@ripzaurus]

"Until it was discovered by humans who could tell the story" Is such a great phrase.

[@DepressedWendigo]

When plants fight back :P

[@peterwalker65]

Plants vs zombies

[@a.j.kimball1240]

Not really, mans was just stupid

[@ssquare7587]

My mouth feels uncomfortable now.

[@CJCroen1393]

As someone who once swallowed a pizza crust so big it actually cut the inside of my throat, I feel for the Ludodactylus.

[@JosephFlores-yn4yi]

Thats rough buddy

[@CJCroen1393]

@@JosephFlores-yn4yi To make matters worse, I was also drinking lemonade.

[@user-en4eo1cc4t]

Carnívorus plant: I once eat a large insect Prehistoric plant: I killed a flying reptile.

[@limegrass6194]

"Vegetables will lengthen your life span." The vegetable:

[@casteddu6740]

The first "slicing yourself with a sharp Chips" time in history

[@GeorgeTheDinoGuy]

Can’t wait too see you hit 300k! So nice to see so many people come together for their love for the wonderful world around them!

[@therealzilch]

What a wonderful story, a tiny tragedy. Thanks again for bringing the past to life for us, Ben. Lunch is on me if you're ever in Vienna.

[@uduejehdudueuejjeej1237]

You know it’s from the uk when it’s teeth be looking like that 1:40

[@tmcyt3037]

archeologists finding this "gold" basically is like the youtube algorythm sometimes

[@treetheoak8313]

Awesome content as usual!

[@cameronjones8641]

Great video! Love your work.

[@theahab]

Glad that the Fossil videos make a comeback. It would be very cool to include in which museums they can be found at...a video of remarkable museums and their fossils or other things would be fantastic!

[@xavierHere457]

Great videos as always Ben! I appreciate your subtly soft narrator voice telling me all the cool dinosaurs news, it feeds into my child-like nostalgia/love for dinosaurs. Also, poor pterosaur sucks to die by plant like that but it is a cool and odd way to show animals of the then and now aren't as different as they really are; just animals being animals.

[@jard4834]

It’s always a good day when Ben posts a video

[@keepcalmlovedinosaurs8934]

Nothing is safe from Ben G Thomas's channel! This was another amazing coverage!

[@TheWirksworthGunroom]

Thanks for bringing this to a wider audience.

[@worm9986]

Congrats with 300k subs

[@gensischronicles1148]

what a wicked and interesting video, thanks!

[@stevenbaumann8692]

Excellent! Well done. I like these.

[@HughLlewellyn]

I'm actually here from the future, via the past. I saw the original Fossil Friday episode last night, and saw all the comments on it talking about this one, so here I am. I've been glutting on your content, starting with the oldest and working my way forward. I'm really enjoying the stuff you made as a kid. I was a dinosaur-loving kid who used to collect fossils too, and if I hadn't put my energies into art & illustration, I'd have wanted to go into paleontology or some sort of science. I love this channel. :)

[@michaeljdauben]

Fascinating fossil! I agree that findings like thus that show a snapshot of the creatures life are some of the most interesting.

[@MrPtrgun]

It's stuff like this that has me always coming back for more!!

[@jacobvanmetre9283]

Uhhhghgg makes me feel sick. I can imagine how much pain the poor thing was in.

[@oneshotme]

Enjoyed your video so I gave it a Thumbs Up

[@inkynewt]

Mostly feeding the algorithm, but this was a great video and focuses on one of my favorite aspects of paleontology- that end of life/forensic reconstruction and storytelling. Thanks ♡

[@flightlesslord2688]

Family member of the Pterosaur whilst it's on its deathbed: 'What is your last wish?' The pterosaur: 'I wanna be a really weird fossil' 'Ah I got you, stab this twig through your mouth'

[@alejoqc9540]

The plant: "Man, those evolution points I wasted in spikes totally worth it!!"

[@naturegnatiggy]

Happy 300k!!!

[@dinodonut5776]

So it looks like Ludodactylus did leaf a trace in the fossil record.

[@KOKO-uu7yd]

*GRROOOAAAANNNNNN!!* 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@veryunusual126]

ffs..😂😂

[@TheCimbrianBull]

*ba dum tss!* 🥁 😂 🤣 😅

[@ahmsdenielp.herrera7190]

Lol dumb pun guy hahahahah

[@Ubiquitous111]

I love you for this 🍃

[@CAWCarcharo34]

I remember this specimen from a lecture during my second year of Palaeontology with Dr. Martill

[@HellecticMojo]

1:28 "-but the teeth are an invention by a far-sighted designer" I wonder if that's a passive aggressive dig on the the designer

[@InvaderPlays]

That must have been an extremely hard plant if it was fossilized without the ancient meat.

[@thenightowl4054]

How very interesting! Thank you!

[@Vulcano7965]

"...named after John sibbick who illustrated many dinosaur books I'm sure many of you are familiar with" Me: *looks up the illustrator on one of my first dinosaur book" Me: well I be damned!

[@GaziShepardFilmsThings]

Toy Pterosaur just gives me the mental image of tiny pterosaurs sat in handbags :3

[@rainpooper7088]

1:54 Woah, the Dinosaur Isle is still running? We used to visit that one all the time when I was a kid, but the last time we went there a few years ago, the museum was pretty run down. But it’s good to hear they’re apparently still doing research there.

[@karenjarrett8904]

The shadow below the jaw looks similar to the wish bone in fowl . Thank you for sharing this information .

[@bonefetcherbrimley7740]

Aww, poor Ludodactylus D: I feel so bad for him/her.

[@needlefoxx]

This is the first time I've ever seen a video mention the Isle of Wight. Hooray for Caulkicephalus!

[@k1cubeyt671]

U guys are amazing

[@Ciech_mate]

Another top video

[@mr.gilgamesh1632]

Hello I have a question. I love prehistoric animals, but I want to learn more and get a deeper dive on them. Can you tell me about any sites or things I can do in order to get a better understanding, because I feel you would know. Thank you :) Your videos are fantastic!

[@randomconsumer4494]

I love how the scale model is standing there like The Fonz.

[@Scrinwaipwr]

1:38 Caulkicephalus means caulk head. A caulkhead is the local name on the Isle of Wight for people born and raised on the Isle of Wight. So Caulkicephalus kinda just means "from the Isle of Wight."

[@Ulta_Nagenki]

EVERYTHING makes mistakes, even dinosaurs.

[@davycrockett8076]

I'd call it a sad, but happy at the same time, little accident.

[@MaryAnnNytowl]

@@davycrockett8076 well, happy for us, who get to learn about the poor fellow. As for him, he would gain no happiness at all from it.

[@glonkerdonker132]

ITS NOT A FLIGHTLESS BIRD(dinosaur) ITS A FLYING LIZARD NOT A DINOSAUR NOT A BIRRRRRrr...Oh wait

[@PauloHenrique-ok3yb]

@@glonkerdonker132 stfu

[@MrZriael]

Perhaps small prey items would hide in spiky palms to avoid predators such as the Ludodactyl, much like rabbits flee into gorse thickets when the dogs are nearby. This Ludo decided to have a go anyway, snapped at the little thing and got skewered.

[@randomdude2832]

the first recorded winner of a darwin award.

[@sanchezzz69420]

Dear Lord, the illustrations are amazing.

[@michaelreetz503]

Are you planning to do the walking with dinosaurs giants of the sky analysis video? I am really interested to hear your thoughts on in.

[@Robochuck]

Is it a small fish fossilized above the plant or just my brain trying to find patterns?

[@blondbraid7986]

I saw it too, though I wonder if it's actually a fish or just some debris with a shape similar to a fish.

[@Orangefan77]

read the picture description at 3:20

[@MaryAnnNytowl]

Yes, the description in the image of it at ~3:20 talks about the little fish, too.

[@The_PokeSaurus]

Fossil Friday is somewhat back!? YAY!

[@xanshen9011]

I bet that pterosaur was me in the past life, my whole existence is a try not to laugh compilation.

[@Pipkiablo]

I was expecting it to have been a case of falling into a pitcher plant or something similar, so when you said it was suspected to have a four meter wing span, my immediate thought was, "Damn, how big was that pitcher plant?"

[@astick5249]

All i can say is "ouch"

[@johnsinth8261]

best voice on the channel

[@u0aol1]

I play a lot of Ark: Survival Evolved. Your videos are pretty great education for me

[@Ozarkwonderer]

Its amazing we have these little windows into the lives of these creatures

[@tolbaszy8067]

A more likely scenario for the leaf being impaled in the lower jaw would be it was floating in the "shallow sea" and the pterosaur was skimming the surface, with its lower jaw extended to trap fish, and mistook the leaf for a fish. That collision provided the necessary force to impale the leaf in the jaw and probably caused the animal to crash in the water and drown.

[@elvingearmasterirma7241]

I never thought that this poor fella would be such a mood

[@reidy1012]

This is actually really cool to learn about, but what I'm actually really interested in, is when the earth was populated by fungi as tall as tree's that left behind evidence of there existence a much longer time ago! The history of life on earth is pretty cool.

[@al145]

Some birds that live today are scary, but pterosaurs are ungodly horrifying

[@BobJones-dq9mx]

Great!

[@70tdc12s]

That's awesome

[@paulwallis7586]

Certain septicemia, as well as the discomfort. Those very tough ancient plants, like ferns, are almost indestructible.

[@droli1353]

i know you probably already have loads of dinosaur and pterasaur videos planned but ive recently learned about a canadian pterasaur named ''cryodrakon boreas'' and i couldnt really find any information about it so if youre intrested in ti heres a video idea

[@piyushsahurkar9362]

Am I the only one who remembered 'scientific accuracies of walking with dinosaurs', its been a long since the last episode comes and I m still waiting for the 4th episode to come

[@ravick007]

Just one thing: in Anhanguera, the sound of the "H" is pronounced similar to the "G" in lasagna. :) "Anhanguera" is the name of an evil entity of Brazilian native indians. But don't take me wrong, the video is awesome.

[@seyxray]

Theres also a little fish fossilized above the leaf :D RIP ludodactylus and little fish