After 25 years of
Jurassic Park movies,
you'd probably
assumed scientists
had learned everything there
was to know about dinosaurs,
and that the facts about
life in the Mesozoic
were more or less set in
stone or fossilized amber.
But that's not the case.
Today, we're looking at
all the crazy dinosaur
facts that have been discovered
since you were in school.
Paleontologists make new
discoveries all the time,
including new
species of dinosaurs,
new insights on
dinosaur behavior,
and new conclusions
about how dinosaurs
would have looked and sounded.
[SCREAMING]
Odds are a lot has changed
since the last time you
opened a dinosaur book.
Before we get
started, make sure you
subscribe to Weird History and
tell us your favorite dinosaur.
I've always been partial
to Triceratops medium
well with a side of asparagus.
OK, let's look at
some Dino facts.
We're all familiar with some
of the truly hulking dinosaurs,
like the Brachiosaurus whose
sneezes Lex Murphy and forever
dooms her to a life
of playing indoors.
But scientists are discovering
new species of dinosaurs
all the time.
While nowhere near as large
as its movie star cousin,
though Ledumahadi
mafube was twice
the size of an
African bull elephant,
making it the largest
animal on earth
when it lived in
the early Jurassic.
And we had no idea
it even existed
until September of 2018.
Meaning a giant
thunderclap at dawn
in the native language of the
area of South Africa, in which
it was discovered,
the Ledumahadi mafube
was what researchers refer to
as a transitional dinosaur,
walking on two legs with
crouched, arm-like front limbs,
before its sauropod
cousins, like Brachiosaurus
and Brontosaurus evolved into
a four legged huge-asaurus
to support their massive weight.
The things we know
about dinosaurs
change as more research
is done over the years.
So consequently, things
that were accepted
as scientific fact back in
1993, such as a Tyrannosaurus
Rex could outrun Jeff
Goldblum in a Jeep, later
became contested, if
not flat out disproven.
At the time,
paleontologists believed
that T-Rex could
possibly run at speeds
of up to 33 miles an hour.
But now the commonly
accepted belief
is that the dinosaur maxed
out at about 12 miles an hour.
That by no means is slow
for an eight ton predator.
But the tyrant lizard king was
definitely more Prefontaine
than it was Usain Bolt.
Unlike the giant
lizards they've been
portrayed as for
the past 100 years,
the vast majority of
dinosaurs were probably
covered in feathers, meaning
they looked more like Big Bird
than T-Rex, which is
cute and terrifying
all at the same time.
The great dinosaurs had feathers
theory didn't come together
all at once.
But after years of
unearthing plumed specimens,
including a well-preserved
feather herbivore in 2014,
the evidence became
impossible to ignore.
Maybe that means the
Tyrannosaurus Rex's tiny arms
were actually wings, which would
make the next Jurassic World
movie 10 times better.
One of the first things any
self-respecting dinosaur
nerd will tell you is that
Brontosaurus didn't actually
exist.
It was just a case of a
scientist misidentifying
an Apatosaurus skeleton
as a new species
and giving the
discovery a new name.
However, in 2015,
a research team
reexamined both the Apatosaurus
and the original Brontosaurus
skeleton, and discovered
significant differences.
Meaning the Brontosaurus
might finally
earn its well-deserved spot
on the official dinosaur
roster, which would
be great considering
the Brontosaurus is a way
cooler name than Apatosaurus
But speaking of famous dinosaurs
that didn't really exist, back
in 2010, scientists discovered
that a species of dinosaur
known as Triceratops
didn't actually exist,
putting several Land
Before Time sequels
in jeopardy of suddenly becoming
scientifically inaccurate.
How could one of
the most well-known,
and my favorite, dinosaurs
in history not be real?
Well, before we
all get too upset.
It turns out the discovery
was more of a technicality.
The specimens that
had previously
been identified as
Triceratops were actually
younger dinosaurs of a different
species, called Torosaurus.
But since Triceratops was
the first of the two species
to be discovered, it remains the
official name of the species.
We apologize to all you
Torosaurus fans out there.
Because we view dinosaurs
as giant lizards
rather than their own distinct
classification of animals
for decades, the common
scientific belief
was that they laid eggs in
nests and abandoned them,
like modern lizards and those
people who allow their faces
to be unblurred on Cops.
However, more recent
discoveries have
revealed that several species
of dinosaurs, including
the predatory Troodon,
actually guarded their nests
and raised their hatchlings.
I'm not sure if they got their
offspring into swimming or jazz
band, but dinosaurs
were good parents.
One of the most oft-repeated
factoids about famous dinosaurs
is that the Stegosaurus had
a second auxiliary brain
in its pelvis, perhaps to
help it solve complicated math
problems.
But the theory that the
dinosaur's pelvic cavity
held a second brain was never
more than that, just a theory.
Modern scientists think it
might have held a glycogen
body, which is a structure
found in modern birds that
is used to store energy.
Pachycephalosaurs,
or Friar Tuck as it's
called in 1997's The Lost
World, Jurassic Park,
was long thought to have used
its impressive domed skull
to head but competing
dinosaurs in mating contests
or deciding who gets
the remote control.
But while they
may have possessed
the ferocious bold demeanor
of a Jason Statham-asaurus,
modern researchers have
concluded the Pachycephalosaurs
skull simply couldn't
have withstood more
than a single headbutt.
Those formidable skull
bones were merely for show.
You may remember Spinosaurus
as the pinch-hitting dinosaur
nobody asked for
that steps in to take
T-Rex's place as
the chief terrorizor
of the human characters
in Jurassic Park 3.
Despite engaging in
a memorable battle
to the death with
Tyrannosaurus in the film,
the real-life Spinosaurus
actually lived in water.
According to a 2014
discovery, Spinosaurus
had several structures
similar to modern crocodiles,
making them excellent
water hunters,
as depicted in that climactic
scene where it tries like hell
to eat William H. Macy.
Mmm, braised William H. Macy.
When we were kids, picking
a dinosaur out of a lineup
seemed pretty easy.
If Jurassic Park made a toy
out of it, it was a dinosaur.
But as the fossil
record has continued
to grow over the years with
more and more discoveries,
scientists are finding
it increasingly difficult
to classify exactly what
traits define a dinosaur.
In fact, according to
paleontologist Randall Hermes,
there's only one
distinguishing feature
that is completely
unique to all dinosaurs--
having a complete hole
in the hip socket.
Anything else is just
a weird old animal.
And scientists are
finding it harder
to classify different
species of dinosaurs
within their own
evolutionary tree.
For instance, Tyrannosaurus
and other theropdos
were once assumed to be closer
to sauropods, like Apatosaurus,
than to be beaked
Ornithischian, like Triceratops.
But a study in 2017 suggests
that the opposite is true,
which is fine with us.
Because that's one more
checkmark in the T-Rex
might have had wings column.
Because they were long
assumed to be giant reptiles,
it was similarly assumed that
dinosaurs were cold-blooded.
But recent discoveries
over the past few decades
have determined that this
likely wasn't the case.
Since cold-blooded
animals like lizards
can't regulate their
body temperature,
their skeletal structure
keep them low to the ground.
Dinosaurs were massive
upright creatures,
which cast serious doubt on
that cold-blooded theory.
Additionally the discovery that
many dinosaurs had feathers,
and that these feathers
were not used for flight,
suggests that they were
used for insulation,
much in the same way that
mammals use fur or puffy winter
jackets.
Dinosaurs have been
roaring for as long
as we've been putting
them into films.
Because humans, as a
species, collectively decided
that something that huge would
shake the Earth with it's
powerful prehistoric bellow.
As it turns out,
dinosaurs would've
been physically
incapable of roaring.
I know, so disappointing.
Instead of a larynx,
which is what
mammals like bears
and lions have,
dinosaurs would have had
syrinx's, which are essentially
the vocal tubes of birds.
Scientists discovered
a preserved voice box
from a prehistoric
duck-like bird in 2016,
which provided them with a good
idea of the kinds of sounds
a dinosaur would have made.
Although, if you ask us, the
ending of Jurassic Park would
have been no less memorable
if after killing those
Raptors T-Rex let out
a triumphant honk,
and pretty handy to have a
T-Rex for your morning commute
as well.
Everyone thinks they
have a pretty good idea
of what dinosaurs looked like.
But the truth is
all of our images
of dinosaurs are based on
speculation and guesswork.
For example, there's a world of
difference between an elephant
skeleton and when an
elephant actually looks like.
The skeleton leaves
out the elephants
most defining
characteristic, the trunk,
if you didn't know what
that characteristic was.
To illustrate this point, paleo
artists CM Kosemen and John
Conway published a book
called, All Yesterdays,
that features alternate
artistic renderings
of what dinosaurs
could have looked
like based on the fossil record.
They also include a
few interpretations
of modern animals drawn in
the paleontological style
of stretching leathery skin
tightly over the bones,
including this truly
nightmarish drawing of a baboon.
We're currently living
in what many consider
to be the golden age
of dinosaur discovery,
with scientists discovering
new species on the regular.
We're now just being able
to uncover fossils in places
like the Arctic, where we
recently found Nanuqsaurus,
an ice-bound Tyrannosaur.
Included in this hit parade
of recent discoveries
is the Patagotitan.
No, not a new outdoor
clothing brand,
but the largest land animal
yet known to have ever existed,
which was found in 2013.
But even at around 35 meters
long and 10 meters tall,
it might only be
a matter of time
before the new biggest
dinosaur ever is
crowned over the Patagotitan.
Because of the reconstructive
nature of paleontology,
and an ever-growing fossil
record that's currently
increasing at a blazing
rate, scientists
have accepted that everything
we know about dinosaurs today
might completely change
within a decade or two.
According to paleontologist
Jonathan P. Tenant--
There are still huge
gaps in our knowledge
of the fossil records.
And the rapid pace
of discovery is
changing much of what we
thought we knew about dinosaurs.
There are still
conclusions to be
drawn from the
fossils discovered
within the past few years,
let alone all the discoveries
waiting to be made
from the bones that
haven't been uncovered yet.
We're still keeping our fingers
crossed for some T-Rex wings.
Paleontology is a
unique form of science
that attempts to
reconstruct the past based
on limited evidence, which
means our knowledge of dinosaurs
and dinosaur behavior
is constantly evolving,
much like the dinos themselves.
What do you think
dinosaurs look like?
Let us know in the
comments below.
And while you're
at it, check out
some of these other videos
of our Weird History.
