Yutyrannus: The Largest Feathered Dinosaur Ever Discovered

Yutyrannus huali was a large, carnivorous theropod dinosaur from Early Cretaceous China. It is notable for being the largest dinosaur found with direct traces of feathers, a discovery which forever changed how dinosaurs are perceived. It was for this that Yutyrannus was given its name, which means "beautiful feathered tyrant". This fluffy predator belonged to the clade Tyrannosauroidea, making it a distant relative of the famous Tyrannosaurus rex, although the feathered tyrant rose to the top of the food chain independently of the more famous tyrant king.
Thank you to the themattalorian for narrating this video.
Sources:
xinglida.net/pdf/Xu_et_al_2012...
www.nature.com/articles/srep2...
link.springer.com/content/pdf...
royalsocietypublishing.org/do...
peerj.com/articles/12727
00:00 - Introduction
01:48 - Anatomy
05:13 - Feathers
08:55 - Nanuqsaurus and Deinocheirus
10:18- Relationships
12:32 - Packs?
14:17 - Paleoenvironment
15:28 - Conclusion
16:10 - Outro

[@GurneyiTheGreat]

You forgot that it’s roar buffs nearby tames by 25%

[@aceundead4750]

It would be hilarious if someone found what appeared to be feather imprints on a spinosaur fossil of any species.

[@rebeccalee2155]

Pelican spinosaur Pelican spinosaur

[@1998topornik]

At this point I wouldn't be suprised.

[@OptimusPrime-od3zh]

That’s impossible although spinosaurids are getting weirder they most likely didn’t had feathers

[@jrbaxterstockman548]

If we look at all variants then work backwards. What purpose or advantage would maintaining some form of feathers give a spinosaurus? It would be possible to see a full coat of specialized feathers designed to trap extra oxygen for boyuancy like ducks. But based on what we know about its lifestyle that would be entirely unnecessary as it would likely be a wader, not a surface level floater and diver. However it could be advantagous for a spinosaur to a few extremely long basal feathers filament fibers on the face and jaws, analogous to what is seen in catfish, essentially a sensory tool for movement in the water. Basal dinosaur ancestors and related genre have been found to have basal feather filaments, so all bets are off. Even the largest mammals have some form of hair. I think a more intense speculation is inference based on crocodilians. Modern species have shown that if injured before juvenile state and a portion is cut off, they can grow back enough of their tails to function for swimming. It doesn't get replaced by the previous bone and muscle, but hard tendons and cartilage (to the extent they can grow it). They can replace up to a few vertebrae this way. It's theorized it's because the tail is so necessary for effective swimming. So I wonder how many spinos could be wading around with knubbed tails if they could do the same.

[@lucashernandez4345]

​@@OptimusPrime-od3zh That's what they said about the Deinocheirus.

[@justskip4595]

Fossilization is very rare and fossilization that happens to preserve more than few bones is very rare. I wish I knew even a fraction of what really was than what we can see from fossils, butwe'll be keeping on digging more and more impressive fossils for rest of me life, so I got those to look forward to.

[@rosegoldhiips]

It also breaks my heart that there are species of animals we will NEVER know about because of plate tectonics recycling land that had fossils back into magma 😭 it's not like there was anything we could do about that but the thought still haunts me regardless.

[@GladDestronger]

Well, if we keep on digging, we'll probably hit paydirt at some point.

[@armyant9163]

@@rosegoldhiipsmakes me think about how forgettable we are in the grand scheme of things. Nobody will remember our names in 100 years.

[@TheAnimalKingdom-tq3sz]

Yutyrannus is best fluffy dinosaur hands down

[@euantheyutyrannus]

Thank you!

[@cheesy384]

They’re pretty good for raiding too. That roar buff is very good for soaking or pushing with gigas

[@Shr3w]

Nice as always! I liked the tangent about Deinocheirus because I was under the mistaken impression that artists had a good reason to make it fully feathered.

[@tjsquibbofficial]

One thing I wonder is what colour Yutyrannus' feathers was. I know a lot of smaller species were confirmed to have black or iridescent feathers, even some had striped red and white feathers, so I wonder how colourful Yutyrannus was.

[@usmanya5110]

i think it could possibly be some sort brown, white or grey if the place it lived snows. i wonder if it would like a snow shoe rabbit except it's a hunter rather than prey.

[@puffpuffpassmako]

It's theorized most were white in color due to adaptation. They lived in colder areas, so the feathers were most likely an evolutionary trait to keep them warm. And the white coloring to camouflage themselves when hunting

[@mortified776]

Yes! I've been hoping for a Yutyrannus video. Because it will likely come up again, Yixian is pronounced like ee-she-an and Dilong is dee-long.

[@aceundead4750]

To be fair anytime a y, x, or q are involved in Chinese the pronunciation could go any number of infinite ways

[@mortified776]

@@aceundead4750 Oh I certainly meant to correct, not criticise. I agree it's not reasonable to expect everyone to be familiar with how pinyin represents Chinese phonemes. I only know because I studied Mandarin at uni. I thought I should say something because the Yixian formation is inevitably going to come up many times in future videos and CHimera would want it being pronounced sort of correctly. (I wouldn't bother with the tones unless actually conversing in Mandarin - which I've hardly done since uni anyway! lol)

[@tanagerthenight-sky424]

This was a really informative and well researched video ❤. I really appreciate that you didn't ONLY focus on the feathers. I find that with animals like Yutyrannus, Archaeopteryx, early pterosaurs, etc., we tend to only focus on them in the context of the evolution of their respective groups, rather than as animals in their own right. This vid struck a nice balance, as it covered it's evolutionary significance AND aspects of it's own biology and probable life style. I genuinely learned so much abt this beautiful creature, and I look forward to learning even more abt other creatures on this channel ❤.

[@Kotifilosofi]

"The question is: why yutyrannus remained so fluffy?" Is there more adorable question asked 😂

[@erichtomanek4739]

Excellent video, informative, well structured, articulate and visually appealing. One day, I hope a fully feathered polar sauropod is found.

[@erichtomanek4739]

Called Shivermesaurus

[@posticusmaximus1739]

Shivermesaurus timbersii

[@daniell1483]

I love this narration. You can tell there is a lot of passion in this narration.

[@Ryan-gl6qq]

That’s crazy literally like 2 weeks ago I was looking for a yuty video cause I miss playing ark lmao

[@eufemiasandoval7686]

This was an amazing video dude, keep up the good work! 😊

[@jenmqkeeper]

So much good art in this video! And super informative!

[@DoseDailyOf]

Brilliant video as always, loved it.

[@vinniedurrant]

Quality narration and illustration. Subbed 👍

[@rileyernst9086]

Due to the current lack of carnosaur fossils from other cold formations, (the closest I can think of is the Candeleros at a yearly average of around 16'C) And the lack of evidence them from Antarctica or Australia(I mean I've heard rumours of Winton formation spinosaurid teeth and that is about it at this point)(I believe this is important to note as Antartica would have posed a serious temperature boundary for cold sensitive dinosaurs looking to migrate from South America, and whilst Australia has sauropods, megaraptorans and probable abelisaurs the lack of the obligatory large carcharodontosaurid is pretty apparent(especially when Patagonia was crawling with the brutes). I'd hesitate to suggest that the cold climate of Yutyrannus's highland home is the reason for it's unique appearance as the top tier predator of the Yixan formation. It very much seems that megaraptorans and perhaps even abelisaurs could tolerate colder climates, but neither group seemed to be present in East Asia at the time, giving the tyranosauroids-the usually medium/small therepods there the edge.

[@altanativeftw2625]

Was the Candeleros really that cold? It was laid down during one of the hottest parts of the Cretaceous.

[@Ozraptor4]

Megaraptorans were in Early Cretaceous Asia = Fukuiraptor in Japan, Phuwiangvenator in Thailand and possibly Datanglong in China.

[@Jarod-vg9wq]

The fact they found two specimens of different ages NEARLY complete is incredible!

[@Alberad08]

Fascinating video - thanks a lot!

[@christianhunt7382]

Yes I like his narration better. Thanks for your work!

[@RemusKingOfRome]

Another Excellent video, Art work also excellent.

[@zoology7764]

Wow another amazing video ❤❤

[@Vacio721]

Love Yutyrannus, absolute favourite dinosaur and i hope to one day get the chance to study its fossils

[@DeluluIsTheSolulu]

I LOVE Yutys, they're my favourite dinosaur.

[@bibia666]

🙏Thanks for the uploads.., great channel, deserves more views and likes. Greetings bibia

[@michaelsmith6420]

Feathers for thermal insulation is only a secondary property. Most of the Cretaceous period was warm to hot. The primary purpose of down-like feathers was abrasion resistance. Endothermic animals are much more active than cold-blooded vertebrates. Activity means falling down, scrapping against bushes and trees and rocks and...Feathers are the disposable interface between an animals skin and environment.

[@GladDestronger]

The feathers could've been for showing off for mates or against rivals.

[@An-kw3ec]

the temperature was on average 5-10 degrees celsius (40-50 F) warmer, so you can still find cold winters above 50 ° latitude, I imagine some creatures lived in those regions, north america and asia were located at the northern hemisphere during late cretaceous . Also high elevation decreases temperature.

[@chir0pter]

Awesome vid!

[@robertbradley8309]

Great video!!

[@mlggodzilla1567]

Another great video 😎

[@CountryBallsEdits2023]

Yet again a W video as always! I’ve always wanted to see a video about Yutyrannus!

[@stevepartridge2959]

Excellent presentation.

[@duneydan7993]

He is back!

[@cadesilvers76]

I love this channel

[@marcosalerno4254]

Again, GREAT VIDEO! In the future do you do a video about Utahraptor?

[@chimerasuchus]

There are plenty of other videos about Utahraptor and I don't think I would have much to add.

[@Ahturos]

Indeed it looks beautiful. Intresting video. It´s faschinating to see how the ecosystem looked in diffrent parts of the world in diffrent times. I am a bit tired of just the American parts being covered in Paleomedia I think South America, China and Scandinavia would be intresting to look into more. Great video.

[@Marasuchus216]

So that’s what the main Sharpteeth villains of The Land Before Time XIV: Journey of The Brave really were like. Although, the size of their possible head crests was overestimated and their body colours were also rather wrong in this cartoon they still were correctly pictured as an agile, active, fast and dangerous predators, chasing Littlefoot and his friends in the Mysterious Beyond with no mercy. However, what I do love about Yutyrannus and its relative Sinotyrannus is their appearance and paleoecological niches so similar to those of biggest rivals of not only Early Cretaceous tyrannosauroids - Carnosaurs (carcharodontosaurids, respectively). I think that because of the isolation made by the climatic conditions or indented surface no carnosaurs lived in the 122 - 125 milion years old Norheastern China, so Yutyrannus and Sinotyrannus may convergently evolved to replace them in this area. I got just one question about the paleobotany of Yixian Formation: “Is it possible that Bennetitales, which may be the relatives of Cycadophytes, could survive even in the cold climate with snowy winters? If they did, it’s very cool about them! Until now I thought that were restricted to the tropical or subtropical temperature just like their possible relatives cycads. I know that some palm species today can survive in the temperate zones, maybe some Bennettitales did so? I’m asking because I saw them beneath the snow behind Yutyrannus in the paleoart in the introduction of the video.” In the short, ABSOLUTELY GREAT VIDEO! 👍👍👍👌👌👌 I’ve been watching your AMAZING creation for years! Keep it on! 💥✨💫⭐️🌞☄️🪐🌕🌎🌍🌏🔥🌋🗻⛰⚡️🪨💧🌊🌫🌬💨🧪🧬🦠☘️🍀🌿🌱🌳🌴🌲🪱🦞🦐🐚🐌🦑🐙🦀🦂🕷🦗🦋🪲🪳🐠🦈🐟🐸🦎🦕🦖🦤🦅🦎🐀🐒 🧑‍🔬 🪨🦴 ⛏

[@chimerasuchus]

Bennetitales had been found in the Yixian formation, so they were already to endure the winters there.

[@Marasuchus216]

⁠@@chimerasuchus Thx. for the answer. ☺️ From now on, these plants are even more unique to me. Except for the non-avian dinosaurs and pterosaurs, I also love all non-angiosperm Mesozoic plant groups, especially Gymnosperms, Bennetitales, Pteridospermarophytes and Pteridophytes (mainly tree ferns and lycophytes). I like the way of their dominance alongside dinosaurs and pterosaurs (maybe until 66 Mya, although, they were restricted by angiosperms by then). 🌿🌴🌲🦅🦖🦕

[@georget4141]

really cool but i feel like a solid 10% of the visuals should’ve really just been of the fossils themselves. they’re some of the most impressive and visually educational fossils ever and they got pretty much no screen time in favor of drawings

[@joshuaW5621]

And this guy is why I wasn’t entirely skeptical of the idea of T. rex having feathers.

[@Sirdilophosaurusthethird2.0]

Fluffy boi

[@wrathofatlantis2316]

Interesting idea that the slowness of the adults would be compensated for by the long legged speed of the young, these driving/holding the prey for their elder's slower, bigger jaws... Allosaurids were so different, I wonder if this youth long legged speed disparity also applied to Giganotausaurs?

[@posticusmaximus1739]

I think a high level series on Coelurosauria, highlighting compsognathids, tyrannosauroids, ornithominosaurs & maniraptorans would be cool. This is the greater stem-bird family that few know how closely related they are

[@chimerasuchus]

That is a good idea. The possibility that many compsognathids are young carnosaurs would complicate it though.

[@posticusmaximus1739]

@@chimerasuchus fine, I'll settle for maniraptorans & ornithomimosaurs

[@mymom1462]

Thanks for another Banger video man. Listening to this on loop while I do my sets. I have a doubt though- Wasn’t Nanuqasaurus proven to be a juvenile Tyranosaurus?

[@mymom1462]

my bad it is actually nanotyrannus

[@mhdfrb9971]

@@mymom1462 yes nano is a juvenile t-rex.

[@totwallybaba]

It is easy to imagine a flock of those monsters scouring the area for victims when i watch 50 free range chickens overturn every leaf in search of their victims. They don't gingerly over turn leaves. They scratch with their feet. For a mouse in a burrow, they dig it up. Multiple hens play tug of war until the mouse is disassembled. Did these monsters play tug of war with sauropods? How deep in the ground would a proto mammal have to dig to be safe? Can you imagine the smell of these things? The 20cm long filament downy feathers would have been matted down with gore.

[@danielled8665]

Unless they were as fastidious groomers as birds are today. With the exception of sloths, most animals don't allow themselves to become matted with filth.

[@willwoodlief7309]

Wonderful video! Current narration is great but miss original voice

[@nonyabiz9487]

Oh boy let the feathers fly! I always imagined that there was much more theropods with feathers than just the Yu. I wouldnt doubt one bit that even the famous T-rex will be discovered with much more feathers than originally thought. Its only a matter of time.

[@IndianaViola]

Press 'C' to courage roar your dinos, tribemembers, and allies.

[@Eustreptos]

do you use microphone in your videos?

[@kuitaranheatmorus9932]

After 11 years, I gonna say Yutyrannus is a fricking awesome dinosaur overall & no doubt its one of my favorite dinosaurs Overall this video was pretty great and I wish you have a great day

[@euantheyutyrannus]

Thank you!

[@Chris.Davies]

0:20 - It's a shame we're still seeing insufficiently-lipped Tyrannosaurs. We know the type of enamel their teeth are made from must be kept moist, and so it is not possible that a closed mouth tyrannosaurid would display teeth; they had to be kept moist inside a closed mouth with extensive lips which covered all their teeth almost all the time.

[@sakei-kun3090]

Deinocheirus says hi

[@burnedsmackdown4209]

T-Rex is my favourite dinosaur of all time, I know such a boring answer, but Yutyrannus I have come to really like

[@Resident_Nightlord]

Does anyone get legitimately frustrated because you aren't able to go back in time and see these stunning creatures first hand? We're 65 million years too late and it's beyond irritating 😂

[@chimerasuchus]

Sixty six million years late.

[@al20o33]

I would have liked to have seen close up photos of the fossils showing the feathers of this dinosaur.

[@asiandieno4905]

My second favorite dinosaur!

[@chimerasuchus]

What is your favorite?

[@asiandieno4905]

@@chimerasuchus Spinosaurus has grown on me, it’s changed a lot and I think that gives it some kind of charm.

[@euantheyutyrannus]

Make it your first.

[@joseluiscalixto5651]

The Yutyrannus huali is a very interesting theropod and as an extra fact its bite force is 2405 Newton. A strong greeting 👋

[@Jarod-vg9wq]

We found a animal covered in feather 🪶 Scarier then a goose 🦢.

[@marcosalerno4254]

I ❤️ Yutyrannus!

[@euantheyutyrannus]

You too!

[@blackbaccarabloom]

I think a suitible canidat for your channel would be Allodaposuchus.

[@maozilla9149]

cool

[@procow2274]

Yu tyranasaur i tyranasaur we all tyranasaur

[@thearnoldarmy1899]

Im glad this channel exists.

[@HassanMohamed-jy4kk]

Are you going to think of a suggestion making a KZbin Videos all about Geosaurus (A Marine Crocodile and/or A Sea Crocodile) on the Next Chimerasuchus Next Saturday coming up next?!👍👍👍👍👍⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[@nightshadeentertainment6568]

Can I get a Rutiodon Video please?

[@ZodiacLeopard.]

Yixian is pinyin (the Romanized spelling language for Chinese) and isn't pronounced "Yicks-ee-an" but probably closer to "Yee-shan" Just a heads-up going forward

[@acr08807]

Yixian is pronounced (roughly) yee shyan.

[@flutterbree]

Is it possible that dinos lost/grew feathers depending on the season? I know this is a common pattern among modern mammals but idk if that applies to any extant birds/relatives

[@georget4141]

it’s definitely possible, and might even be a virtual certainty

[@sneeringimperialist6667]

The feathered feet make me think they lived in a dry area. I had chickens that got foot infections from wet grass that didn't bother other breeds of chickens without feathered legs...

[@brianhammer5107]

HUGE speculation when comparing crocodillian brains with theropod dinosaurs, especially the tyrannosauridae ...

[@johnshields6852]

Cold weather animals would definitely have fur or feathers.

[@daniellewillis2767]

Carnosaurs looked like giant pickles, lol. Yutyrranus is the BEST tyrannasaurid

[@justjoking5841]

Now imagine if they were human shaped and had advanced technology...

[@OdeeOz]

Hats off, and a deep bow to CHimerasuchus, for this amazing, and informative documentary! 👍👍& 10⭐ Oh how the visuals and minds-eye-view of dinosaurs that are Fuzzy like a baby Chick(en) just brings my smile to the far edges of my eyebrows. Time for CGI creators to get on the ball, and show them all with Downy Feathering, and mature feathers in a _realistic_ way of Nature.

[@Flux_40]

EVERY feathered dinosaur fossil was found in CHINA, a country notorious for producing fake goods ! the palaeontologists aren't honest enough to admit this damning fact.

[@JarodFarrant]

0:11 three nearly complete skeletons of the Saints species of different ages? For any palaeontologist that’s equivalent of winning the lottery.

[@XrandommonX]

It's also good for boss fights.

[@user-mn7bb9nj5y]

Maybe might be could be a little over speculated

[@drimachuck]

I love Yutyrannus but I got psychic damage at your pronunciation of Yixian. It's yee-syan.

[@dynojackal1911]

Wish that JW:D had used this guy and Utahraptor instead of the Giga and more oversized versions of small raptors. Although the shaggy coat of protofeathers Deinocherius is shown with in Prehistoric Planet may not be accurate, a coat of short-but-dense protofeathers could be possible. Especially if the feathers could retain water somewhat since Deinocherius is thought to feed on water plants. Spinosaurids aren't carnosaurs. Spinosauridae are closer to Megalosauridae; And both groups are basal tetanurans, placed outside of both Carnosauria and Coelurosauria.

[@chimerasuchus]

Recent research has found that Megalosauroidea is a paraphyletic assemblage of early carnosaurs.

[@dynojackal1911]

@@chimerasuchus Still places Spinosauridae outside of Carnosauria.

[@beboyuca8208]

Where are my fellow arklings? Yes ark brought me here ..

[@jamesburke6078]

This might have been in the mountains...or forest's...rex was by or in the water hole.... that's right! Scales

[@darrenpellichino2923]

I don't think the temperature's were that low during the era where there was no ice on the planet. The glaciers didn't form until 3 million years ago and ice didn't form until 30 million years before that. The planet during the time of this videos content was not in an ice age like we are right now. An ice age is the period when glaciers exist, currently 30% of the land is covered by glaciers meaning this climate is nothing like the climate these dinosaurs lived. The Earth had a period of roughly 300 million years without ice. Just an FYI because everyone who writes earth history mistakenly says things like "The Neanderthals lived during the last ice age" when the proper way to say it would be "The Neanderthals lived during the last glacial maximum". I have read hundreds of wrongly written documents along this line of thinking.

[@miquelescribanoivars5049]

0:53 Cough* Juvenile cough*

[@dovelyxx]

in conclusion: big chicken

[@euantheyutyrannus]

Why hello there

[@R17inator]

0:52 "the previously known largest feathered dinosaur, the small, basal Therizinosaur, Beipiaosaurus" wait, what about Utahraptor and Austroraptor?

[@chimerasuchus]

Neither have been found with feathers. They are reconstructed with them because their close relatives had them.

[@sokjeong-ho7033]

What about the Madagascan elephant bird?

[@chimerasuchus]

@@sokjeong-ho7033 Yutyrannus was 50% larger than the largest species of elephant bird.

[@Dinoboyification]

Is anyone else watching this because of the Yutyrannus in Path of Titans?

[@richardmuir3536]

Would the Yutyrannus hunted in family packs and not mixed packs?

[@jacobcox4565]

There's no concrete evidence that says they hunted in packs. One of the biggest pieces of fossil evidence of Tyrannosaurids hunting in packs is a bunch of Albertosaurus fossils from individuals of different ages that were found together, but those fossils could very well have been from unrelated individuals that just happened to die together.

[@brianhammer5107]

The largest feathered TYRANNOSAUR - not the largest feathered dinosaur. There are oviraptids much larger than this.

[@SrGonzalez]

I thought it was the Deinocheirus

[@RaffyART1995]

It would have been bette r if you show just the fossils

[@tswizard13]

I would surmise that carnivores would hunt in family units.

[@jacobcox4565]

Not all of them, most carnivores today don't hunt as a family unit, so why should it be any different during the Mesozoic.

[@maiawalters413]

Im pretty sure therizinosaurus was the biggest feathered dinosaur

[@chimerasuchus]

Preserved feathers haven't actually been found on Therizinosaurus. It may have had them, but Yutyrannus is the current record holder.

[@EvaDraconis]

Here for the ARK: Survival Evolved comments

[@Hellseeker1]

Doubt it.

[@TeethToothman]

💀⛏️💀

[@rydrakeesperanza5370]

Thanks for the video, just what I needed 😊 (although critics will most likely say "it's just collagen and this scientist made an experiment with whale skin blabla"🥲). These drawings of a feathered Yutyrannus are just so cute. I cant wait until more feathered fossils are discovered , who knows what dinosaurs were roaming around we never got to see feathered?

[@konstantinavalentina3850]

With some consideration where a number of bird species exhibit seasonal moulting, i wonder if, perhaps, seasonal moulting may have occurred with some dinos, and were we to find a broad enough data set of extremely well-preserved specimens that could potentially be season-linked to seasonal fossiles preserved alongside them, we might find some variety in integument. I venture to to suggest we may even find some dinos listed as one species, or another may be found to belong to one species differentiated by seasonal integument instead of a group of similar with static fixed integument.

[@tessahegwood2362]

AWW WOW JUST IMAGINE THESE ANIMALS STILL EXISTENCE TODAY SOMEWHERE BEYOND (AREA) 9 . SOMEONE PLEASE CORRECT ME ALTOGETHER WITH IT. AHH, WHAT R THEY HIDDING

[@Lowlandlord]

Nanuqsaurus is best, eh?!

[@bartolomeorizzo]

shorten the pauses between full sentences for the future, often just listen to videos and it always looks as the video is buffering (or maybe it really is buffering and it is me)