When Sharks Swam the Great Plains

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If you’ve ever been to, or lived in, or even flown over the central swath of North America, then you’ve seen the remnants of what was a uniquely fascinating environment. Scientists call it the Western Interior Seaway, and at its greatest extent, it ran from the Caribbean Sea to the Canadian Arctic.
Thanks to Dmitry Bogdanov, Nobu Tamura, C.R. Scotese, NASA and the many others listed throughout the video for making their images available to use.
Produced for PBS Digital Studios.
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References:
Oceans of Kansas: A Natural History of the Western Interior Seaway (Second Edition) by Michael J. Everhart.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/1...
www.researchgate.net/publicat...
www.researchgate.net/profile/...
www.researchgate.net/publicat...
www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/1...
www.jstor.org/stable/1306568
www.sciencedirect.com/science...
pubs.er.usgs.gov/publication/...
rspb.royalsocietypublishing.or...
link.springer.com/article/10....
pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/...
www.rushcounty.org/PostRockMu...

[@TK199999]

Another thing people tend to forget, the Seaway at its deepest was maybe 400 ft (122m) deep. For contrast the Mediterranean is up to 17,000+ ft (5,200 m) deep in places. Meaning the Seaway was incredibly shallow, that meant these predators were literally stacked on top of each other in the water column. But this also meant that the Seaway was one of most abundant and plentiful water ways of all time, which is really how it supported all those predators.

[@avabeth2535]

This is just incorrect. It was 2500-3000ft deep.

[@olivarryflarrow4681]

@@avabeth2535 You're both partly correct. In SOME places it got up to 2500ft deep(which is still very shallow in terms of seas and oceans) but a vast majority of its area was less than 600ft deep.

[@safeysmith6720]

Soooo not the best place for snorkelling.

[@MrMarinus18]

Indeed, it's kind of like tropical rainforests in that way where you also have niche partitioning which makes it that over 85% of all animal species live in tropical rainforest despite them covering only 10% of the land.

[@gavinshannn636]

@@olivarryflarrow4681a great plot twist

[@mitchellskene8176]

No matter what, I'll always call the Western interior Seaway "Hell's Aquarium"

[@nestor1907]

Walking with Sea Monsters bud!

[@p3ter9000]

Is that a pun on Hell Creek?

[@mitchellskene8176]

@@p3ter9000 No!! It's what Nigel Marvin calls the Western Interior Seaway on Chased By Sea Monsters.

[@veo_]

I love how genuinely excited she seems when discussing how a xiphactinus died after eating something too big for it's entire digestive system.

[@silent_stalker3687]

Rob Alinder Meanwhile... animals actually eat and digest animals that are both too big for the digestion system and too big for their whole body exists. They are WEAK!

[@andreiryancaballero7422]

​@@silent_stalker3687Not really. Their "food" is just plastic. that's why they choke to death.

[@moxxym]

More ancient marine biology please, its so cool

[@danielbailey8001]

Hear, hear!!

[@SunritShukla]

No

[@Rain-fp1np]

@@SunritShukla yes

[@SunritShukla]

@@Rain-fp1np No

[@mikemo1993]

@PBSEons THIS^

[@nothisispatrick4644]

Shark: How would anyone eat the likes of us? Humans: Are you being rhetorical or asking about recipes?

[@htoodoh5770]

No this is patrick lol

[@unclekanethetiberiummain1994]

BiggsN15 Yeah, If they eat the whole shark, they wouldn't need as much sharks as they took today.

[@haridziran114]

@@BiggsN15 shark finning already decreased 80%, but the most dangers to ecosystems still comes from eating the whole sharks chinese now banning their fins, but shark meat as a whole were still being consumed most importers were chinese, americans, and a few european country

[@haridziran114]

consuming of large sized sharks were down somewhat due to the awareness of the dangers of mercury, but the demand of medium sized shark rise instead i don't have data in me since i just deleted my history and forget to archived it

[@xo-1320]

Shark: ... Wow.

[@vegavega5344]

I have a mountain farm in Norway, (A farmstead located on a mountain), and while building on the farm we had to dig out foundation for a new building-- Underneath the ground we found alot, and I mean-- ALOT of sea shells and sand, which shows that even this mountain has been submerged at some point in time.

[@vegavega5344]

@sleepy gary Well, yes-- but not in the scale that you may think.. First of all, there is no secret that our last ice age laid huge parts of the planet covered with snow and ice, and when all that melts, it is going to leave alot of water. And it is no secret either that the sea level is diminishing year by year, you can easily find statistics about this from recent years and decades, like from the 1980-2018. This is the sea level though, and I don't know the statistics around fresh water. But before all this, the world was also nearly covered by only vast ocean, back in time when most life on the planet were marine animals and species-- By standards of sea level, we are decreasing a vast amount each decade, and I can also tell you that here in Norway, the absence of ice on the water-- To go ice fishing on, for example, if decreasing. Back in the 1990s the entire fjord used to be covered with ice during the winter-- But since the 2000s began and untill now, the ocean has less and less ice in the fjords that ice fishing in the ocean is almost impossible, since there is no ice-- it just isn't cold enough anymore. So climate change might be a reason, since it is becoming hotter in the air, so the ice is just melting away. And this might also be why the sea level is decreasing-- it's evaporating over time. But who knows-- The earth have had many cycles of ice ages, tropical ages, etc etc so maybe ''losing water'' is just a natural cause of our planet?

[@thesittingacheroraptor7565]

Umm what did he/she said

[@markleyg]

No. The seafloor was pushed up via plate tectonics.

[@MrKradzy]

@@markleyg sea floor*

[@WhiteLiteBarbie]

Isn’t the sea level rising? Not decreasing....

[@Justaguy5678]

When I was younger, fossil hunting was a big hobby of mine. I'm from Minnesota, and all the fossils I found were shells or other sea dwellers. Even found a Cephalopod, whose shell was in excess of 5 feet, in a stone quarry.

[@johngrill9951]

Hey, can you do a story on the different periods of the Sahara when it becomes a grassland filled with lakes etc

[@nyar2352]

Oooh yes! Please!!

[@TheHadesShade]

Good idea!

[@vincebellisano1347]

The Sahara was an ancient sea.

[@grizzlymanverneteil4443]

My balls

[@xrisanthemum]

oh yes please!!

[@couchpotatoe91]

2:54 "Now North America was a land divided by two!" Hard to imagine these days, right? xD

[@robertsettle2590]

In two. Not by two.

[@ConstantChaos1]

To be fair at this point it's really more 3 factions, right, central left and progressives

[@TheJamesAraujo]

@@ConstantChaos1 yeah 3: Canada, Mexico and USA

[@ConstantChaos1]

@@TheJamesAraujo sorry, if I had not specified my statement that might have made sense but as it is it almost seems you didnt read the entirity of my statement before commenting

[@MEGABUMSTENCH]

@Dale Gribble more like brain dead trumplers and normal people.

[@katiemould6970]

This woman’s voice always makes my problems go away.. so relaxing :p

[@marksadventurechannel8471]

Yes, Kallie is a most appealing woman. She may not be a supermodel, but she is very smart. And smart is sexy.

[@katiemould6970]

I mean I was just talking about her voice.. 😂 But sure, if you want to talk about her appearance, then yes I think she’s beautiful, and naturally... (which is hard to come by these days 😝)

[@tygrr69]

Very Feminine voice,

[@gauchesymbiote1039]

Kallie is the best. I do like the other's videos as well, but Kallie is soothing and entertaining. You can tell she really enjoys doing these videos. I really love it when she gets super geeky about bugs. I relate.

[@kr00k3d100]

Almost put me to sleep. lol

[@Laura-vv3yu]

I would like to see an episode on the evolution of modern fish. Like when and how did saltwater and freshwater fish split and adaptations to different water conditions like pH, hardness, and temperature.

[@Ezullof]

That would be very hard to do. The only evidence we have about these adaptations is where the fishes were found.

[@mrmadness2699]

It happened multiple times. Thinking that freshwater fish came just once from saltwater fish is like thinking that trees evolved from forbs just once

[@Vulcano7965]

The transition probably happened from ocean to brackwater to fresh water.

[@RD-dt6dm]

That transition by fish or marine animal species/group independently occurred thousands of times. There was not one point and then successor species, but it occurring over and over at different places, at different times with different groups and in both directions with salt water adapted marine life going into brackish and then fresh, and visa versa.

[@sorrenblitz805]

The transitions between Fresh water and Salt water tend to happen far too often to reliably track through the fossil record. Even today there are fish that we think can't survive salt water or can't survive fresh water, but we find them doing fine in both. This tends to mean those genes are fairly malleable and can change somewhat generationally. I know there are plenty of sharks that tend to find themselves in brackish or fresh water and while it will eventually kill that particular shark nothing's to say that as the oceans change sharks won't regularly be spotted in estuaries and further inland swimming in the larger rivers, maybe even giving rise to exclusively fresh water river sharks.

[@ajedogawa1916]

"Beasts that found ways to thrive even in spite of each other.." how poetic and philosophical! Love this channel

[@alienworm1999]

It always seems like the topic follows the new ecology/paleontology term being taught, and I love it "Let's make a video explaining niche partitioning, and we'll use this super neat example as a backdrop"

[@nump45]

I am very curious about ancient life in the Amazon. How long was the Amazon covered in rain forest? What environments existed before it became the world's largest rain forest? Are there other regions that had bigger or comparable rain forests, and how did those jungles disappear?

[@mattmorehouse9685]

From what I've heard the Eocene was incredibly warm and wet with massive jungles, so that may be of interest.

[@sorrenblitz805]

It's also possible the forest was there when the dinosaurs fell, and over time rebuilt itself.

[@Bhoddisatva]

The Amazon in the Cretacious was an open forest filled with conifers and ferns. The asteroid impact changed all that. Over 6 million years new plants moved in to form a dense multilayered rainforest dominated by deciduous trees and other flowering plants.

[@fatherman3488]

I could only imagine that, not only did some of the smaller fish and marine reptiles migrate from the Arctic to the Caribbean (and vice versa) for purpose of spawning or simply more suitable temperatures, but that their predators would lay in wait at specific locations that would either bottleneck their prey or simply be advantageous due to the currents of the waterway. Big eyes in marine animals today generally occur in the nocturnal species as well, so perhaps (even though living at the same time) some predators merely hunted at different times of the day. Squid are more active at night than in the daytime. I love this channel! Thank you all for your hard work and wonderful information to get the world thinking. Best thing on the internet, right here 👏👍👍

[@elliotminto4730]

Christopher Lock I never thought of it being a migration highway but now that you mention it, it seems so obvious. It could explain so much of the predator diversity

[@villep7907]

This channel is so underrated

[@thejimmydanly]

Fascinating video! I'm from the Texas Panhandle, near Palo Duro Canyon, a steep sided canyon (very similar geographically to the Grand Canyon, in fact, it's the second largest in North America and often called the Grand Canyon of Texas). One very interesting feature of the canyon is that, due to many of the historical layers being revealed, you can actually find the layer from when this sea existed (you can visually identify it because of the slightly green color). If you are lucky when hiking in this layer, you can actually find shark teeth! I highly recommend visiting if you're ever travelling through this part of Texas. It's only about 20 minutes south from Amarillo. (Oh, and one thing we have over the Grand Canyon is that you can drive down into the canyon!)

[@riskeerider]

Shout out to my Panhandle Neighbor!

[@danielolsen1348]

Very cool

[@CalebPace05]

riskeerider Same

[@HG-jy3bl]

Same, went to WTAMU like 6 minutes from Palo Duro. I never knew what the green layer was, pretty awesome!

[@CalebPace05]

HG6433 I go to WTAMU

[@kip4393]

HOW HAVE I NEVER HEARD OF A FRIGGING OCEAN RUNNING THROUGH WHAT IS NOW THE US?? If there was ever anything that that proves how much our high schools suck, it’s this. Thank you PBS for teaching me and others on KZbin about the Earth’s amazing history!

[@thepinkerton657]

High school should teach functioning skills and basic histories. Learning the rest is on you. If high school was designed to educate you on everything about everything, we'd all still be there.

[@SC0RCH3er]

This is very interesting, yet in grand scheme of things is just a minor occurrence. Not necessarily a High school subject... Imagine you would learn about every single geographical and archeo-biological epoch. I´d imagine that would take the whole subject just for the US continent. Now combine that with how many kids in high school are just completely uninterested in the subject and would not be able to tell you what Pangea was at the end of a year. This kind of stuff is for specialized Universities where people who teach and people who learn about it are both interested and invested in the subject.

[@Helicondrummer]

I live in Illinois were It's common to find small sea shells in limestone pretty much anywhere such as driveways. Most of that is dug up locally a believe.

[@dudev]

A brief geological history of North America would cover the interior sea. High schools don't teach it because most often the teachers and admins are afraid of touching the subject of evolution. Or they're creationists. And if high schools only taught "functioning skills" students wouldn't develop interests and wouldn't be able to make the best-college choice.

[@Bluswede]

I learned about it when I was a wee lad. My father worked earth-moving construction and often spoke of seeing sea shells in the rocks blasted from a very high area for use as fill in a large earthen dam in South Dakota. Later on, a 7th or 8th grade science class covered it. Education in America just isn't what it used to be! Of course I was a nerdy kid and would sit reading the World Book encyclopedia when it was too nasty to play outside...there wasn't a lot of TV allowed, and what was watched was mostly "grown-up" stuff that didn't thrill me!

[@Yamyatos]

Thanks for using the metric system and putting imperial on the screen for those few who care.

[@davidls187]

109 people thought they were gonna talk about Megalodon lmao

[@eons]

Not this week, but we're working on it! (BdeP)

[@drsharkboy6568]

PBS Eons yeah, please discuss this giant shark’s evolutionary history (it was in the family Otodontidae, so not a great white relative as previously thought,) and it likely didn’t look like a giant great white. It would have likely looked like a hybrid between predatory mackerel sharks and whale sharks, with large pectoral fins and a broad tail to propel it through the water. It could have also had a rounder snout. Perhaps it looked somewhat like this: www.deviantart.com/sharkboy17/art/The-Carcharocles-megalodon-775052528 Though you don’t have to use that pic in your video. I’d rather let your paleoartists reconstruct an accurate Megalodon with the mentioned features.

[@jonathanryan9946]

Or, sadly, Sharknado

[@pyrozeus1021]

DrSharkBoy the megalodon from the meg was probably what megalodon really looked like. they got the short nose, long pectoral fins, and crescent tail very accurate.

[@pyrozeus1021]

other body features couldve looked similar to the otodus shark considering megalodon evolved from otodus.

[@astrobot4017]

You're gonna need a bigger boat.

[@theboredengineer2947]

Now that's a lot of prehistoric damage

[@knee-deepin-doot8742]

HOW BOUT A LITTLE MORE!!!

[@andyjay729]

These days, you're gonna need a bigger tractor.

[@tristonong7049]

Well if I could travel back in time and swim with prehistoric sharks, I will!

[@ralphjosephacobo8014]

I get that reference...😏

[@Alex-kp5pq]

The little fish inside the xiphactinus is called _Gillicus arcuatus_ , which was apparently a close cousin to its predator.

[@whafflete6721]

This story tells us nobody could be trust even your family.

[@patrickdeng9484]

@@whafflete6721 i888i8x8"to the right info to be able as I am

[@fang609]

As soon as I saw the title I knew I was going to learn more about this unique underwater ecosystem.

[@nileshkumaraswamy2711]

You uh wanna edit this?

[@fang609]

@@nileshkumaraswamy2711 Sorry for that It's kinda late and I guess I am a bit drowsy.

[@mattressmccabe1686]

Aww I missed what it said before it was edited, what did it say?

[@whalesong999]

Kansas native here and enjoyed this view of what lies beneath our plains. Have heard about this prehistoric epoch but the details here filled in well with the graphics.

[@TheBeverlyp3132]

Beep beep and snakes and beep beep ima snake beep beep ima snake said beep beep ima snake

[@mikekapuffty6110]

You do a lot of videos about palaeontology in the Americas. Do you think you could look more at some of the other areas in the world? A series on Australian megafauna would be amazing.

[@brianmiller1077]

I'm guessing Ms. Moore is going off what she knows and has easy access to (she's based in Montana). Maybe you can talk Hank Green into sending a crew down under and partner with an Aussie institution for a bunch of episodes.

[@sohopedeco]

Yeah, like monotremes and marsupials! Why can't they just mammal properly? I need to know!

[@zddxddyddw]

@@sohopedeco Well actually, monotremes appeared very early, in the late Triassic, while marsupials and placentals only showed up around the early Cretaceous. So Monotremes have been "mammaling" for quite a longer time than us. Marsupials and we placentals are both the new kids on the block regarding mammals, two distinct evolutionary mammal pathways that diverged from one another. There were of course other groups of Mesozoic mammals, but they were appear to have died around the time when we therians (marsupials and placentals) showed up.

[@KhanMann66]

@@sohopedeco They're not the weirdos, we are lol. We, placental mammals, are the new hippsters. Monotreme and marsupials are the OG baby boomers of the past.

[@Dragrath1]

@@zddxddyddw Technically rather than our placental and marsupial ancestors suddenly showing up and out competing other mammal groups it is far more likely that the extinction of the other mammalian lineages alongside the non-avian dinosaurs at the end cretaceous played the main role. There is evidence that a generalist diet adapted to eating seeds may have helped our ancestors and birds survive when the global food chain collapsed

[@briggasnax8575]

How to make a PBS eons title: "When *Blank* *Blanked* the *Blank* *Blank"*

[@jupiter1390]

When PBS Eons made the Title Preset

[@knee-deepin-doot8742]

Lmao do not take these comments seriously

[@mho...]

better then "once upon a time in _____"

[@ianmccombs5624]

When Smurfs Smurfed the Smurf Smurf. ... ... I'd watch that.

[@ElynevanOpzeeland]

@@ianmccombs5624 nice ^

[@Boarderforlife15]

I love mammalian megafauna. Perhaps a video on paraceratherium in the future?

[@rolypoly1591]

I'd like to see some Crocodile Evolution. I know the Reptiles have been around before the Dinosaurs, ate the Dinosaurs, and of course, survived after the Dinosaurs till this day. It would be lovely to learn more about the Reptiles in a well done summarization instead of hours wasted upon reading the first documents that pop up online for me.

[@MissingRaptor]

I second this suggestion! They're so cool and they diverged so extensively!

[@daswasich1147]

but when we talk as General as "reptiles" it would only be fair to mention that Dinosaurs are still around too ^^

[@rolypoly1591]

@@daswasich1147 Dinosaur descendents were only cool when they were towering Terror Birds. Phft who cares about highly intelligent, music creating, socially complex flying fur balls amirite?

[@daswasich1147]

@@rolypoly1591 True, tho it helped me a lot to understand taxonomy when understanding, that Birds are not Dinosaur descendents, they are Dinosaurs. In the same way that we are Humans and Monkeys at the same time ^^ (It's kinda obvious but i Always knew humans were humans and mammals at the same time but would have said we only come from Monkeys instead of being them XD)

[@mcthrull7417]

RolyPoly Croc go neigh Easiest way to explain the croc who walked on hooves

[@johannelbekian3476]

When I read the title, I imagined sharks on two legs running through the Great Plains. Thank you for this beautiful thought.

[@invisiblejaguar1]

The Sahara has a similar history to it as well. Amazing when you look at these places on Earth, that used to be a sea, Antarctica used to be a rain forest. As for those buildings built with the very material those fossils were found in, imagine having a mosasaur skull in the wall of your house, mind blown! :-D

[@serotoninsyndrome]

"Once upon a time, there was an ocean; but now it's a mountain range. Something unstoppable, set into motion. Nothing is different, but everything has changed..." Paul Simon, "Once Upon a Time There Was An Ocean"

[@akaste9]

I think Kallie is a great host. She's smart, makes the material accessible and engaging, her voice is crisp and modulated (important for an auditory/visual medium), her enthusiasm for the topic is clear. All of these factors together enhance the already interesting content.

[@The_NitDawg]

Can you detail the evolution of penguins

[@jamesrobinson9852]

They used to be massive. edition.cnn.com/2017/12/12/world/giant-ancient-penguin-found/index.html

[@NavyDood21]

I love all the episodes of Eons. I would love to see you and the team you work with produce a long, Planet Earth, style documentary.

[@somedude140]

You know what is really cool but almost no one knows about? The meridungulates. Please, these guys are SO fascinating and barely anyone has even heard about them.

[@borntobewilde]

All I know about them is that they remind me of the funny animals in the ice age movies with the floppy snouts (that I think played in the mud? Idk man its been years but I remember one like shaking mud off its snout or something) and I'm not sure if that what those animals were in the films but they sure do look similar

[@WORLDCRUSHER9000]

​@@borntobewilde Macrauchenia, kind of like a fat horse/camel hybrid thing with three toes and a trunk. They actually lived in South America alongside early humans as recently as 12,000 years ago

[@WORLDCRUSHER9000]

basically anything about pre-interchange south america would be interesting. It was a bizarre island continent kind of like australia; with terrestrial crocodilians, giant predatory birds, marsupial sabertooths, and meridungulates that were convergent with elephants and rhinos.

[@somedude140]

@@a_turtle2074 The group name is meridiungulata, but the members of the group can be referred to as meridungulates.

[@somedude140]

@@a_turtle2074 I know, right? They were such an incredibly diverse group, but there's almost no information about them. I swear it's a conspiracy.

[@veggieboyultimate]

Mind blown, now I know what niche partitioning is. If the marine reptiles were that big in the seaway, how big do you think they could've been in the open ocean (such as the Pacific Ocean)? I just get chills thinking from that. Also can you do a video on ice age pluvial lakes?

[@The_Ossifrage]

Actually, that’s an interesting comment. Open ocean (pelagic) habitats tend to have less large prey, because most food sources are found near coasts and reefs. The large size of the mosasaurs may have been a result of the shallow, life-rich sea, and open water may have limited their size rather than encourage growth. Whales grow large nowadays because they feed on tonnes of plankton, krill and small fish that live near the surface, and giant sharks like Megalodon and great whites ate fatty, calorie-rich mammals. The shallower sea meant a higher concentration of small prey, and thus more medium sized predators like squalicorax, dolichorhynchops and xiphactinus, and consequently giant carnivores like tylosaurus and cretoxyrhina.

[@andrewkukor3706]

Another option to explain the niche partitioning might be if different predators were active at different times of the day (e.g. diurnal vs. nocturnal), which might also explain things like the different sized eyes and other sensory organs between different species.

[@planetpeterson2824]

Videos every week, and not just awesome content but content that I would have NEVER thought of. So glad this channel exists, nothing else like it.

[@lauriepenner350]

Loads of older buildings in Canada are made from Tyndall limestone, which is chock full of marine invertebrate fossils. If you tour the legislature building in Winnipeg, they even give you a pamphlet that shows where in the building you can see the best old fossils (and I'm not talking about politicians!)

[@ericwaters6194]

I love this show! I'm especially fond of learning about ancient hominids. Could we get more of those?

[@christianv-h3278]

Nice video - thanks for sharing! The Western Interior Seaway is definitely one of the most interesting aspects of North American paleontology :) By the way, for those who want to know, the best sites for finding fossils from the Western Interior Seaway are in the chalk of west Kansas (though all of the chalk sites are on private land...)

[@samrizzardi2213]

Please do a video on hyena evolution :(

[@hectorbb4225]

Super clits? Haha

[@Ezullof]

Didn't we get something like that already?

[@DominickAlan]

PBS , I do not know your narrator’s name for this episode but she is fantastic ...

[@BrianSmith-ez9kj]

Kallie Moore

[@joeys4289]

What an incredible subject and video! Thank you PBS Eons for your continued excellence! #PBSEONSISLOVE

[@JR-gp2zk]

I hate to say it again but...The evolution of Spiders. Oh and cool shirt. Eons needs to start selling stuff like that in its store.

[@FossilHannah]

I work at the Sternberg Museum in the paleo collections and my coworkers and I had NO idea about this video until now 😂😅 idk how I missed it in my sub feed all these months!!!

[@pachydactylus7662]

Would you make a film about last common ancestor of vertebrates and invertebrates? It could be quite interesting

[@somedude140]

There actually were multiple last common ancestors since we're more closely related to some inverts than others. So they'd be going over our splits with the sponges, then the cnidarians (jellyfish, corals, and anemones), then the protostomes (arthropods, annelids, mollusks, flatworms, nematodes, etc.), then the echinoderms (starfish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, etc.), then the lancelets, and finally the tunicates; along with a bunch of other groups that weren't as major as these.

[@ApotheosisTK117]

I would love to see a video that focuses on prehistoric rhinos, they were so huge and different!

[@crazycatlady39]

9:54 A 2 meter long fish dinner being eaten by a Xiphactinius twice it's size: "Seriously?!? Fine!! I'm taking you with me!!!"

[@manderse12]

I'd love to watch a video on the Missoula Floods (aka the Bretz Floods) of the Pacific NW: their origins and effect on landscape and flora and fauna of the region. How did species like native salmon survive, or other iconic PNW fauna? Were there other massive floods of similar magnitude in the geologic record that paleontologists study?

[@swearenginlawanda]

There is a KZbin channel with a professor that goes in detail. ( sorry, his name escapes me) just do a search

[@rynieryarom4277]

I just love this channel. It glues all the natural history together in linear progress of life. And not some data from here and there. It makes it easier to learn about natural history instead of isolated event/organisms without any context like many TV show portrait

[@theoregonguy]

There's always a bigger fish.

[@martind5565]

So you would say the bigger ones have the high ground!

[@Okidoku34]

@Rowdy Jr. Yeah i think so. Whait i ask Captain igloo

[@danielolsen1348]

Had to be said

[@djay6651]

I live in SE Kansas and you can find all kinds of aquatic fossils in the native limestone. In 1992, I found a 2 inch ammonite shell at about 4 feet when digging a water line trench. Crinoids are all over the place here as well. There is also a lot of sandstone that was shaped by wave action and still looks like sea floor.

[@Thutil]

The song that plays at the beginning and end is amazing and I desperately want to be able to listen to it by itself

[@brookesegal9004]

It’s so weird when we go on long drives and I always think about what my surrounding would’ve looked like under water along with what all buried underneath my feet. I live in Fargo, ND

[@carnotv6136]

Could you do a video on Appalachia?

[@TheColemancreek]

Where I live at in central PA in the Appalachian mountains there is a good bit exposed geology dating from the Carboniferous era. The coal beds that are common in this area were laid down during this time period. I have read the mountains used to be a similar size to the Himalaya but have eroded over the millennia to a more modest size. There is a type of mudstone that you can view exposed from the mountainside that is a peculiar shade of purplish red, and it contains fossils of huge club mosses and other forms of life. I agree Carno it would make an interesting episode.

[@RadicalT]

First, they gotta learn how to pronounce it

[@glitchvomit]

@@RadicalT i was scrolling down looking for a comment saying this! :P

[@middleearthloreandfantasy5873]

I wish the Western Interior sea still existed. I could go to the beach and go sightseeing for such great wildlife for photography!

[@Grundag]

The Niobrara or Great Kansas Sea still exists on all of those fossilized beaches exposed by erosion. On any humid summer night when the winds are in the pines, you can still hear the time lost echoes of waves crashing onto the beach. Let the winds come from the east on a rainy night and you can smell the vanished sea as all of those exposed strata are soaked with water once more. Thanks for this video. Living on the front Range of Colorado for most of my life, that prehistoric ocean is always near and dear to my heart.

[@AntoniusTyas]

More marine paleontology, please...! I'm always fascinated by the ancient marine life ever since I was a 10-years-old boy watching Walking With Dinosaur, so this kind of episode is worth the wait

[@beeblaine539]

It’s like discord. A lot of predators

[@katelynnehansen8115]

I am so glad I found this channel! The quality of the presentation and information within is so great, it almost brings me to tears of joy, as silly as that is. Absolutely top notch! I will become a patron as soon as my debit card arrives!

[@dirtson7782]

As a lifelong Oklahoma native, I've found plenty of fossils in my own backyard! Those little spiral guys are everywhere here.

[@PlainsPup]

Wonderful Eon, as always. But not so long ago (merely centuries), the Great Plains were an equally fascinating "American Serengeti," full of vast herds and awesome predators. Please, please do an Eon that!

[@ras351]

If you go to yellowstone you can still see a remnant of that.

[@missmelodies52]

I wish I could see that! Living on the Great Plains, glimpsing a little fragment of natural prairie is breathtaking.

[@llabronco]

Topics: -Lake the size of Utah? Formation, recession, flora/fauna -How did the Rockies form and how long ago? -Yellowstone supervolcano, its eruption changed the global climate?

[@seanmccann8368]

Wonderful channel, thank you all for your input and hard work and God bless C.R.Scotese for the Paleoglobe Project.

[@davethebarbarian8055]

I'm so glad this channel is successful. Awesome videos!

[@johnwilliamson2276]

It's always enjoyable to watch you. You are very informative and make learning easy. Thanks so much.

[@glacialguy5889]

Do a video on mammal-like reptiles

[@mme.veronica735]

I think they might have already done that

[@KhanMann66]

@@mme.veronica735 Touched upon it. Never made a video about them specifically.

[@glacialguy5889]

Zonofv I mean a more in-depth one.

[@glacialguy5889]

Mac Mcskullface I know, it’s just a more recognizable name in order to get more likes thus a higher chance of the request being accepted.

[@grizzlymanverneteil4443]

Yessss

[@k.r.9606]

I just have to say as a younger science loving woman with visible tattoos and stretched ears, I love watching and supporting a channel I can connect with on multiple levels. It really gives me hope that I can find my dream job. So thank you!

[@soaringbumnm8374]

I am curious... aren't you worried about having stretched ears in a bar fight ???

[@k.r.9606]

@@soaringbumnm8374 I don't drink alcohol or do anything else drug related actually. I don't fight with people either, sorry to disappoint but I don't fit the stereotypes. Stretched ears are no different than regular pierced ears I just use larger sized jewelry.

[@KuraiStone]

her voice is so soothing. no matter how rotten a day I've had, if I watch a video narrated by her, I'm immediately relaxed and happy. And I learn cool new facts, to boot!

[@brenmoyer4896]

PBS Eons Is soothing, cooling, smoothing, A Balm to my soul

[@cbj8441]

Awesome video! I really enjoyed listening/watching the presenter too, thanks.

[@hppern3971]

The music in this episode was fantastic!

[@CopperChaos]

One summer I attended a paleontology camp down by Sternberg. It was amazing. I learned a bunch, saw the behind the scenes of the museum and a lot more!

[@zachspielberger8737]

I’ve always loved Pachycephalosaurus and would love to hear about how they got their boney heads!

[@jamesathersmith2191]

Video on the South American canids please

[@Boarderforlife15]

Love me the Maned Wolf.

[@patrickmurphy6775]

Excellent video. I enjoy learning about the inland waterway. I would like to see more on this!

[@brittneystreeter493]

This is one of my favorite episodes! I’ve watched it several times, I love it!

[@rubricmarine6857]

Definitely my favorite host.

[@airellwibisono9246]

Love your videos! Please do a video about the evolution of antelopes 😀

[@MOO276]

I just want to say I love this channel. There's so much incredible content that can help me learn about things in a fun and easy way for completely free. Thank you so much for making it and helping me understand how truly bizarre and wonderfully massive our planet and its history is.

[@nab-rk4ob]

That was a shocker! I loved it. Once again--put that in middle school/high school science. Awesome!!!

[@kostasl1808]

Great channel, really nice work from the team that produces the videos. If you take suggestions an interesting topic that comes in mind is the story of the largest carnivorus land mammal, which is actually an artiodactyl (related to hoof animals like pigs and hippos).

[@CaptiveReefSystems]

It's amazing how insignificant our mighty human race really is in the story of Earth, and in the grand scheme of our planet, solar system, galaxy, and universe..

[@pansepot1490]

J. Gona, we are very significant to us...

[@CaptiveReefSystems]

@@pansepot1490 That's certainly true.. My comment was simply meant to ponder our scale and perspective of our physical universe.

[@Ezullof]

I disagree with that view. Humans are very unique compared to all species we know. We are the only witnesses of the "grand scheme of our planet" etc, as far as we know. Without us, there is no awareness for what happen(ed) on Earth. It's similar to a role of warden. Without us, there is no story nor history, only traces. And this is much more unique and precious than everything we know.

[@CaptiveReefSystems]

@@Ezullof My earlier stated view is based on factual observations, but trust me I understand your point. As a neurobiologist and psychopharmacologist, I know the ins and outs of the human brain and the amazing nuanced intricacies of the 'human condition' better than the vast majority of the population. My work attempts to bridge the gap between neurology and psychology, and to define consciousness, and ask the hard questions that we still have not answered.. In many ways, we are only scratching the surface of many of these biological mechanisms. The fact that humans have accomplished what we have in the tiny amount of time that we have existed on this planet in an incredible feat. Don't think that I am one of those self-loathing humans that hates humanity. If anything, my comment was to highlight the vast scope of the human condition..

[@timothyjohnson6143]

I love this channel so much!!! Thank you for another amazing video!

[@bigevilshark1958]

Awesome video! I have always loved prehistoric sharks and marine reptiles, and this was super interesting

[@thatonedog819]

Still hoping for a video on bat evolution

[@danielolsen1348]

I think they have one

[@sneakysam8739]

Well they evolved into corona now.

[@Dodoraptor4]

Every time they use the edmontosaurus (or whatever hadrosaur it is) drawing I feel sadder and sadder for it...

[@kutamsterdam]

Love your enthusiasm, it brings a smile to my face.

[@rogercarroll1663]

Wonderful presentation. Thank you for the great work.

[@gibranhenriquedesouza2843]

I still want a complete video about fossalization processes.

[@Meteo_sauce]

That would be on pbs space time not on pbs eons

[@Blitzo2876]

I like sharks and I love her voice! My favorite host!

[@vivianeb90]

I love it when pictures of old times are painted like that.

[@KosodkaLimited]

This is amazing. I'm from the midwest and never knew about the Western Interior Seaway. Eons is the best!

[@brenmoyer4896]

The best content on youtube, or anywhere!! I am greedy and wish you posted more 😊 I'd like to learn more about the cool DNA or genetics stuff!! That part of this field is so fascinating!! Ps how do I get a job doing that?? Really, I'm interested.

[@jcortese3300]

There is something beautifully appropriate in the churches in a state known for enshrining creationism being literally MADE of fossil stone. :-) Talk about an architectural self-own ...

[@greensteve9307]

Nice!

[@jcortese3300]

@@greensteve9307 You wouldn't happen to be THE Steve, famed Eontologist of Legend, would you?

[@sujimtangerines]

I read the comments specifically looking for someone to point this out!

[@skybattler2624]

Plot twist: If you aren't following creationism that much, it is nonsense, but if you read their point, you'll be surprised how much catastrophic plate tectonics can explain nearly 90% of the oddities mentioned (only CPT can explain why the Farrolon plate buckled at a shallower angle than the other trenches, and it all relates to speed. In fact, their Ice Age theories also explain why the sea just took decades to form and why it became immediately inhospitable. There was a variant where the area, by itself, is a nearly landlocked sea. Also, they do argue that such a concentration of species in a short period of time is a proof by itself that they all existed simultanously)

[@maryanneslater9675]

@@sujimtangerines -- Me too. :D

[@davidblake5353]

I found this video like all the others to be fascinating, I enjoy learning about the past. I would love to learn more about Pangea and what kind of life lived at that time on the supercontinent.

[@zeinnerp7609]

Yasssssss. Ever since I started a project on illustrating the Niobrara Chalk's fossils, I've been waiting for an episode on it. It's so exciting!!!

[@Caras443]

Can you do an episode on marsupial evolution?

[@carolines7215]

Love crinoids! Missouri is chalked full of them, there are many places where novice fossil hunters can find some cool crinoids of their own!

[@kingsledge]

Love this host's (don't know your name) coverage of the midwest's history. I'm a born and raised Husker and UNL grad. Grew up going to Morrill Hall and loved learning this stuff

[@Worldtimes1]

You guys are awesome keep up the FANTASTIC WORK!