2019 was a very interesting year for my family
We moved, I'm going to a new school, and we had a baby
who is currently sleeping upstairs
So he won't be in at least to this part of the video
That said, for paleontology, 2019 was also very interesting
With a plethora of finds that will probably make this my longest video yet
And so with that in mind,
Let's get started
For me personally, this year had a lot of finds in the field that I am very much invested in
and that's the origin of dinosaurs
A lot of species that are either very early dinosaurs
or very closely related to the dinosaurs were all described in the past year
And understanding how these different species evolved and developed and became successful
can help us understand what happened after the Permian-Triassic and Triassic-jurassic extinctions
and potentially help us understand how life might adapt to our modern day extinctions
Outside of the dinosaurs, there were things called dinosauromorphs
meaning that they were towards the lineage that would lead to dinosaurs
but weren't quite there yet
Kwanasaurus was found in Colorado and helps show the diversity of one of these groups of dinosauromorphs:
the Silesaurs
It shows the somewhat omnivorous teeth, which is a unique adaptation amoung the Silesaurs
which have either been carnivorous or herbivorous
What it shows is potentially the Silesaurs were adapting towards herbivory
based on competition from related animals in the dinosaurs
such as Coelophysis, which was very much a carnivore
This Omnivory or herbivory could have been out competed by other dinosaurs then in the future
such as the pro sauropods and ornithischians
The latter of which isn't as common in Triassic sediments, but did evolve during this time period
As for the pro sauropods, many of them were from the southern continents
meaning their eventual migration northward
could have out competed these Silesaurs, which had previously filled the niches of herbivores
One of the earliest known dinosaurs is Hererrasaurus, which was almost a theropod
The reason I say almost is because a new study has shown
with close relative of it, Gnathovorax, that they weren't actually Theropods
In fact, they weren't even pro sauropods as some people have suggested
Hererrasaurs being so early in the dinosaur lineage,
have been bounced around a lot as they don't have a lot of the more derived adaptations
that could help narrow down where exactly they belong the dinosaur family tree
This is what makes Gnathovorax so unique
Gnathovorax shows a series of traits which show that it isn't aligned with even the pro sauropods or the theropods
Or even not being in dinosaur, but an early ancestor of them as some studies have suggested
Rather, they are dinosaurs and in sauriscia
which means they're related to the pro sauropods and the theropods
but they aren't either of those
They're their own independent group
Gnathovorax in combination with some of the other dinosaurs i'm about to describe
can show just how diverse the very early dinosaurs and very early meat-eating dinosaurs actually were
and just how unique it is that only the theropod lineage survived
into what we modern-day know as the most dominant predators of the jurassic and cretaceous
Still coming from the Triassic, but this time of Europe
We have Notatesseraeraptor which was found to have similarities to the Coelophysids and Dilophosaurids
What it shows is that the Dilophosaurids were a separate clade from the Coelophysids
Some people had suggested that the Dilophosaurids had evolved out of the Coelophysids
and so they were very much related to the Coelophysids
Notatesseraeraptor's combination of these traits
shows that they had evolved independently and they weren't necessarily nestled right within one another
This helps to show just how broad and diverse the dinosaurs were especially the early theropods
And this is very important as we move into our next subject
Coming from the middle Jurassic
Asfaltovenator is one of the best dinosaurs for helping us understand
just how the diversity of theropods came about
While I did mention that they were very diverse during the early Jurassic and Late Triassic in the past articles
This one shows just how similar the later more dominant theropods were
before the finding of Asfaltovenator
it was thought that the Allosauroids and the Coelurosaurs which would lead to animals like t-rex
But also the birds
were very closely related
and that the Megalosaurs were essentially an out-group to this
where they had a similar Ancestor,
but before the same ancestor of the Allosauroids and Coelurosaurs
What makes Asfaltovenator so unique
is a combination of traits that resemble both the Allosauroids and the Megalosauroids
And this includes things like some small finestra or holes in the skull
that are more closed off than the Megalosauroids
But also having small depressions near the nose that is more reminiscent of  the Allosauroid condition
While Asfaltovenator is probably more closely related to the Allosauroids
what it has done is shake up our understanding of the dinosaur family tree  in the theropods
Instead of things like the Spinosaurs being within the Megalosaurs
They seem to be their own independent clade that evolved from what was originally Carnosauria
Which now includes everything from the Spinosaurs to the Allosauroids and the Carchardontosaurs
Effectively, as the graphic shows you
there has been a large mix-up based solely on this one species being found
and other researchers have entered Asfaltovenator's information into their own datasets
and have found similar things
So it's very promising that Asfaltovenator will revolutionize our understanding of the theropod dinosaur tree
as for what relevance that has for the average person
can be debated
but understanding these evolution patterns can help us understand just how life diversified throughout the Mesozoic
which was a long period over hundreds of millions of years
And understanding that can help us understand potentially how we got where we are
Further down the Allosauroid line, there were the Carcharodontosaurs
which were most often seen as dominant predators in their environment
such as with Giganotosaurus in Patagonia of Argentina
But we can at least identify now that the line that would have eventually led to Giganotosaurus
probably wasn't as large as Giganotosaurus
Lajasvenato has been shown to be an early Carcharodontosaur
found this year in Argentina and much much smaller than the massive Giganotosaurus
or its relative mapusaurus also from Argentina
What it shows is that the early Carcharodontosaurs were actually rather small and diminutive
and definitely weren't the kinds of apex predators that you would have expected of the group
based on what we had found previously
But this isn't the only small Carcharodontosaur that was announced this year.
Another coming from Thailand was also announced
Siamraptor announced this year has been shown to be one of the most primitive of Carcharodontosaurs
Which is unique for two reasons
One: It's still in the Cretaceous
So it still shows that either they were a very late adapting clade of dinosaurs
Or it was very unique and lasting that long as still being very primitive and not being subject to has much
Evolutionary pressure as some of the other Carcharodontosaurs that have been found
The other reason it's unique is as one of the most primitive of the clade
It wasn't founded somewhere that were used to finding Carcharodontosaurs
Generally, they've been found in parts of Africa and South America
Siamraptor's strange locational find in Thailand
just shows how much more fossil work needs to be done in these more remote regions of the world
As there's a lot of very important fossils that might be found from there
including a few more from Thailand
Phuwiangvenator has been shown to be a new species of Megaraptorian
Also coming from Thailand
and the megaraptorians are interesting because no one's exactly sure where they lie on the dinosaur family tree
They may be closer to things like the Tyrannosaurs or even potentially very primitive Tyrannosauroids
Meaning they would have been very closely related to some of the first Tyrannosaurs
Such as DiLong coming from China
There's also the chance that they could have potentially been more closely related to the carcharodontosaurs
and the Allosauroids
The main issue with this is that they are very fragmentary when they've been found
Phuwiangvenator is very similar in that it was also very fragmentary, which is unfortunate
However, it does help us understand a better idea of just how diverse and spread out these species were
As previously, they haven't been found in too many locations
Understanding where exactly they may have originated from, may help us understand where exactly they evolved from
and for this we will need more study as again
They are very fragmentary generally
But I'm hoping that we will understand where they come from cuz'
they're the most interesting clade of theropods to me at least
From the same paper was Vayuraptor  a very early coelurosaurian
and this may potentially lead to the idea that even Phuwiangvenator was an early coelurosaur
such as the Tyrannosaurs were
Vayuraptor combined with Phuwiangvenator helps to show again
The Megaraptorians may be coelurosaurs
But it's still hard to tell
These two new species though are very unique
and so hopefully there will be more work done in these cretaceous sediments of thailand
which have seemingly only recently been studied
and so will hopefully hold all new treasures for paleontologists to study
It's important to also understand that likely all of the coelurosaurian dinosaurs were feathered
and new finds coming from Australia likely indicate that they had at least made it there, too
While there haven't been any bones found with feathers
there have been isolated feathers found in certain sediments coming from Australia
During the Cretaceous when these sediments are from
Australia would have been very close to the North Pole
and likely would have experienced a few months of a total darkness each year
What this could potentially mean is that feathers were actually used for warmth
which has been hypothesized by many researchers in the past
However, not all of these feathers would have been just for warmth
as some of them were the asymmetrical type flight feathers that you might expect from modern-day birds
So while, yes, it does seem like this could have been the potential cause warmth for the evolution of feathers
By the time we have them in cold environments, they're already starting to fly
which means there needs to be a lot more study done on the origin of feathers
and hopefully more sites found because there should be more sites from even the Jurassic
or beforehand which could help illuminate the origin of feathers
With the origin of feathers being mentioned
It's important to bring up the oldest feathers known from Kulindadromeus from the late Jurassic
that was until a new paper showed that the sediments were actually from the middle jurassic
meaning that the sediments that they were from and the feathers then
were even older than previously thought
What makes Kulindadromeus unique
is that it's not very closely related to the dinosaurs that are more normally found with feathers,
which is the theropods
Rather it was an Ornithscian, an herbivorous dinosaur more closely related to things like Iguanodon or Triceratops
But this very unique find being pushed even further back
What it could mean is that the common ancestor of the Ornithscians and the theropod dinosaurs
May have already evolved feathers and passed them down to both of these different clades
While this common ancestry doesn't mean that all dinosaurs likely had feathers
what it does mean is there's a good chance that quite a few of them did
And this would very much change the public's perception at least on just what the dinosaurs looked like
as quite a few people are still very bitter about the idea of feathered dinosaurs
Unfortunately, the only living dinosaurs that we can do anything with today are the birds
and that leads into how do the dinosaurs go extinct at the end of the Cretaceous
Many people have suggested that the impact in Chixulub was what killed off the non-avian dinosaurs and
and there's been some debate about that
such as the Deccan Traps coming from India
which were erupting about the same time and were massive volcanoes
Which have led to extinctions in the past as I will talk about for the Permian Triassic Extinction
in just a few minutes
A new study suggests that it likely wasn't that Deccan traps though
And this is because more specific radiometric dating for the ages of theDeccan traps
suggests that they had erupted at most a few thousand years before the first impact
and then the next three series of eruptions from the Deccan Traps occurred after the impact
And that's at best
The error involved in the first measurement
could mean that that first eruption even still occurred after the impact at Chicxulub
meaning that the Deccan Traps may not have had as significant of an impact on the dinosaurs extinction
as some people may have previously thought
This research seems to agree with that of another paper
Which while it wasn't looking at the Deccan traps
was instead looking at the environmental changes that were happening in North America
in the few millions and thousands of years leading up to the extinction
What the study suggests, is that environments in North America weren't changing very severely
during the end Cretaceous
And so animals like Tyrannosaurus Rex which lived during that time
Wouldn't need to change their food sources or behaviors or be subject to much evolutionary pressure
Simply because the environments were very stable
It was just a sudden impact that changed those environments that may have caused the extinction
And with that in mind we need to get into a very controversial paper
not necessarily because of the content of the paper but because of how it was reported
Normally when a paper comes out, it has full time to be peer-reviewed and reviewed by other researchers
before it's commented on by the media
Unfortunately for this paper, the lead author of it decided to leak to the news media early what it contained
And the news media made some very bold claims about what the researcher said
because of this it was already seen in a bad light when it came out
and it highlights just how important it is to have a proper peer review
without the media trying to interrupt the research
in favor of a quick buck
In fairness, the paper does make some bold claims which will need to be verified by other researchers
But the bad taste from the media
Already kind of dampen the feel of it for many of the other researchers
What the paper suggests, is that they have found a site that shows what happened immediately after the impact
that may have killed the dinosaurs
What they report is a potential sieche, which is a shifting of water back and forth through something like an earthquake which
considering the impact would have been a mountain about the size of Mount Everest
hitting the planet at 50 kilometers an hour (*second)
Probably would have caused a few earthquakes
The sieche that they report would have pushed on a series of logs and very large fish
very similar to sturgeon up onto a beach
This then as it drained, would have lined them all up as is found in their reported fossils
and then a backwash of that sieche coming back would have buried these trees and the fish
There even appears to be an ammonite in the sediments which is a marine species
Which wouldn't be likely found around the freshwater species of fish and the trees that were found as well
what this could mean is that the sieche was in something like a bay,
which transitions from salt to fresh water
and that the ammonite was pushed in alongside all the rest of these fish
another issue with the paper
Is that all the research took place on private land
which while it is great to be able to use private land for research
It does mean it's harder for other researchers to get in and do their own independent studies
There is one site where there are sediments that are definitely from the impact
and that's the crater
A number of core samples were taken from the crater this past year and what they show is
actually rather what you would expect
The first few layers of rock showed giant cracks and fractures
Which is what you would expect when they are getting hit by a rock from outer space
at a few thousand miles per hour
Above this there are large chunks of molten rock
Meaning that these would have been melted by the impact and then landed back within the crater space
On top of that there are sediments that were brought in because the impact was on the ocean
It would have pushed the water out and that water would have brought sediments back in as it came in and filled.
However, some of that water would have still made onto land
and what it brought it with it is charcoal
What this means was that the impact likely started massive wildfires
at least in the northern hemisphere and the nearby impact zones
One potential reason for these fires being as bad as they were
is the vaporization of sulfur containing compounds
The interesting thing about all of these layers, is that they didn't contain sulfur
The sediments surrounding the crater actually do contain sulfur and this is important
as it means what would have been in the crater likely also did
But since it's not there, it's much more likely that the impact vaporized this sulfur
and would have sent it into the atmosphere
Sulfur is very good at blocking out the sun's rays
and could have potentially caused a global winter
where temperatures would have been near freezing for quite a few years
Anywhere as long as a few decades to a few thousand years depending on what research is being looked at
Fundamentally, though
It does show that the impact had a very significant impact
on the environment surrounding the crater at least
and these kinds of impacts
Shouldn't be overlooked, especially in the mammals
There's been a new fossil find in Colorado containing a multitude of mammal fossils
Immediately after the KPG extinction
what this means is it shows a very good record of how mammals were able to evolve and adapt
After the extinction and fill as many of the niches as they do today
The very first mammals that are found here had very flat and broad teeth likely used for crushing nuts and seeds
However, as time progressed that became more and more cusped teeth
meaning that they would have been used more for eating different types of plant material that was
softer and not as specifically for eating nuts and seeds
By the time larger animals show up with more diverse cusped teeth
We have the addition of things like beans and legumes into the environment
These larger animals still wouldn't have been absolutely massive
on the order of about 80 pounds or 35 kilograms
but they were significantly larger than the very small animals that did survive the extinction
And the reason that the beans are important is because beans contain much more protein
than a lot of the other plants that would have been found in the area beforehand
What this shows is just how dependent on plant life the mammals actually were
and that it's not necessarily just down to them being able to
Repopulate the land but also the plants repopulating the land first
After the extinction there was also a broad diversification of the mammals
including groups that aren't alive today such as the hyaenodonts
which were dominant predators in many environments
A new species of hyaenodont, Simbakubwa
helps to show that they radiated out of Africa first
and that they were very much dominant being potentially as large as a polar bear
despite not living anywhere near the polar regions where larger body size is more of an advantage
What the researchers did to get their range of estimates is measure the fragmentary skull of Simbakubwa
and apply the same body plan that would be found in something like one of the big cats like a tiger or a lion
The problem with this is the hyaenodonts weren't built the same way as tigers or Lions
Rather they had a much larger head comparatively to their body
so this measurement that makes it potentially the largest mammalian predator of all time
is somewhat suspect
and a much more conservative estimate should be considered a more accurate representation
But even for time periods before the KPG extinction
There's been a lot of study on mammals
and one of them suggested the reason that many early mammal relatives were nocturnal
is something to do with anatomy
While many researchers have
essentially left it at they were nocturnal because the dinosaurs were out during the day and
would have preyed upon them
Some researchers wanted to look more specifically than that
and the answer they landed on had to do with the animals being able to reproduce
Specifically, certain parts of the male's anatomy
wouldn't be able to handle the heat of the midday Sun during the Triassic or Jurassic
in combination with internal body parts
Essentially the higher temperatures of the Triassic and Jurassic
would have overheated some of the early mammals and cause them to become infertile
This then would have selected for animals that were more adapted for going out at night
during cooler temperatures
At least until the body was able to evolve to a point where it could keep itself cool
at which point, yes, they could go out in the sun
As for how the mammals were able to become successful in small niches
a new study of very closely related animals, the tritylodontids
Helps to show what they were able to do in order to succeed
The tritylodontids had teeth with varying cusps
Which helps to show that they had a very diverse diet
Additionally their teeth also shows forms of microwear
likely coming from either hard seeds that were being eaten
potentially insect carapaces
or even if they were eating something like worms pieces of dirt and gravel
That would have been caught in the teeth and worn down into them
For the mammals,
This means that they were able to succeed because they had a very diverse diet
They weren't specialists focusing on one singular food item
But rather had a broad diet that was able to encompass many different foodstuffs
So in times of hardship, they were able to succeed where other species might not
This past year, there was also a study on the origins of teeth, and there's been multiple ideas for this
The first idea is that teeth of all from the outside-in
Meaning there was some kind of scale in an early fish
that then moved into the mouth and hardened into the teeth we have today
The other idea is that there were part of the gills
and would have moved into the mouth in order to help swallow prey
and then hardened into the teeth that we know today
What this study suggests, is that they actually did come from the outside in
being scales originally
What has indicated this was a cross-section of a skull of an amphibian
which shows what the researchers call dental flooding
The early amphibians had what are called palate teeth
Which were teeth on the palate what the cross-sections showed is that
these palate teeth would become overgrown by other layers of bone
and within these new layers of bone would be additional teeth
Meaning that each new layer of bone would have contained teeth
A study of certain groups of older fish
shows that this is the same pattern in which some scales would grow
and so it's very likely that the first teeth evolved from
these different kinds of scales moving into the mouth
and regrowing over each other in order to maintain a grip on prey
and eventually evolved into teeth
Remaining in teeth
We're going to look at an animal whose name literally means big tooth
and that's Carcharocles or Otodus Megalodon
There was a study early this year that reassigned the genus of Megalodon
Originally, it was thought to be a Carcharocles  Megalodon or a Carcharodon Megalodon
very closely related to things like the great white shark
However, this new study suggests that it's actually more closely related to the genus Otodus
What this means is that it likely wasn't as closely related to things like the great white shark as previously thought
However, the great white shark still had a major impact on its evolution
The new study on exactly when Megalodon went extinct
Finds that may have gone extinct as much as a million years before previously thought
Many teeth from the younger time period weren't very accurately dated
and this study was able to show that
and actually coincides the extinction of Megalodon with the rise of the modern great white
This is likely because of the great white out competed small young Megalodon
Not the adult Megalodon which definitely could still take out whales
But rather the small ones that which should have also been hunting the same food sources such as seals
Because the great white was able to out-compete the young Megalodon
not enough of them were able to reach adult age and continue breeding
and that would have eventually led to their extinction
This shows how even though something seems like an absolute dominant predator in its environment which
Megalodon was
small changes and even smaller predators
can still out-compete them in certain niches
and cause the extinction of an entire species
As for Megalodon's size...
it also saw a slight reduction
From about 60 feet to about 50 feet which is
18 meters to 15 meters
The reason this happened is because a
researcher took a better look at teeth from very specific parts of the mouth
Previous studies had used teeth from essentially all parts of the mouth to try and estimate the size of Megalodon
This researcher decided to choose to use teeth
from more of the central parts of the mouth in order to try and get
a better idea of just how big it might have been
This new estimate does seem still very large and is very reasonable
But it's not quite the behemoth that many other people would have wished it would have been
It's still massive though
You can calm down if you're concerned about it getting slightly smaller
That said if you're looking for something much larger than 15 meters
You don't need to look much further than the sauropods
and while some of these aren't quite 15 meters
There are still very large animals that are very unique
Bajadasaurus  was a genus of sauropod very closely related to Amargasaurus
most commonly depicted with either a frill or long spines coming out of the neck
Most recent research has assumed that it has been spikes rather than a frill
But occasionally, reconstructions or representations are still shown with a frill such as in Pokemon
In Bajadasaurus, only one vertebrate with a spine was found
But that spine was very severely tilted forward, something not seen at amargasaurus
The author suggested that this was used essentially as a defense mechanism where
Theropods and predators wouldn't be able to try and bite on the neck because of these large spines
Unfortunately though, these spines would have been likely very fragile
And there hasn't been very in-depth study on the sediments the fossil was found from either
Which may have deformed the fossil after it was buried and changed the shape of the original spine
As for the early sauropods
there was a lot of collections that may seem to be new species
and one of those is the genus and Ngwevu
The fossil now known as Ngwevu
was originally known as Massospondylus and it was thought to be just another specimen of that species
However, a new study has shown that it is an independent genus
and it does deserve its own name- Ngwevu
Coming from South Africa where there are a plethora of other early sauropods
such as Massospondylus
but also Ledumahadi and others
it helps to show just how broad and diverse the early sauropods were
in South Africa and the southern continents
With even things like buriolestes coming from South America
It also highlights the need to go through older collections
and identify what may potentially be new species
from stuff that was essentially cast aside because the researchers at the time
thought they already knew everything about it
Hi everyone. Thanks for watching part 1 of my year review
We just launched a patreon recently so you can go check that out below
We also have started to set up our own website
Which will have different paleontology blog posts
and hopefully keep updated on a weekly basis of some of the new finds
which I won't necessarily
Keep all of those in my monthly review videos, but there's just extra information for you
Anyway, be safe. Take care. Don't go extinct
