The Creature That Stumped Darwin
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Toxodon was one of the last members of a lineage that vanished 11,000 years ago after thriving in isolation for millions of years. And its fossils would inspire a revolutionary thinker to tackle a bigger mystery than Toxodon itself: evolution.
Thanks to Julio Lacerda ( / juliotheartist ) and Roman Uchytel (prehistoric-fa...) for their excellent reconstructions featured in this video.
Produced by Complexly for PBS Digital Studios
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"Isolation breeds weirdness, that's something I learned the hard way during lockdown."
Far too relatable.
I am here in Lockdown in Sydney, Australia. I think its Week 10.
I think the only weirdness we are experiencing is getting Obese because of isolation & spending to much time on screens of all types of digital devices
LOL
"Isolation breeds weirdness"
NZ "No, it's normal for birds not to fly, insects to be as big as a mouse, penguins to nest in tree roots, bats to walk, etc. etc,"
@Vet On The Verge Ha ha, but actually: - Penguin wings are not like a lot of fish fins or dolphin and whale "flippers", which are more like trim adjusters. Penguins really do use their short but powerful wings to "fly" through the denser medium of water.
I also think that the Northern Hemisphere Puffins are on the way to converge to the same strategy.
AU: ... Yo.
Let's not forget the world's only alpine parrot. The kea
And the world's only flightless/one of two of the world's only nocturnal parrots. The kakapo
The second nocturnal parrot belonging to Australia the, night parrot, which can't actually see in the dark at all.
@@Lexzah and 5th group of reptile with only one species the Tuatara lol
I knew all the others but the penguins which nest in trees. Today I learned something new--thanks to you.
I love how passionate every host is, just makes the content that much more interesting!
Low-key this would be my dream job so I can't blame them for being excited
Yh actually makes me want to learn about something unlike school
I’ve got a HUGE crush on him
@@delyar who?
@@delyar well I'm straight, but he's easily my favorite of the bunch. Definitely seems like a pretty cool guy. And his enthusiasm did get me excited about this subject.
Platypus: I’ll be the most confusing animal discovery of all time
Toxodon: hold my skull
tully monster, not even resolved if it was a vertebrate or not as far as i know
@@austinfernando8406 It’s a vertebrate if I recalled it right , the mystery was solved recently
Another animal which is incredibly strange is the Hirax. Imagine an animal which looks like a marmot, but its closest living relatives are elephants, manatees, and dugongs.
To be fair, a platypus fossil without any living examples would be hecka confusing
Lol
Darwin in South America: “This place used to be such a freak show. First there’s trunked llama looking things and elephant sized sloths and now whats either a land manatee or giant rodent. What the hell is next?”
“Have you found the giant murderous terror chickens yet?”
Darwin: “T h e w h a t-“
Darwin mess up big times , decided to study the basic of evolution in the weirdest place on earth
"also the cow-sized guinea pigs"
@@陳嘉宇-y4q or perhaps it was the best place for him to start?
@@user-bz6gh5ng2m
It was.
@@user-bz6gh5ng2m truly , isolation is where evolution does its magic
Toxodon being somewhat closely related to the rhino actually makes me feel a bit better, that's kinda where I saw it. guess that might be the artwork you guys showed tho
I saw the skull and immediately though "horse". I'm glad I was right too. I'm a better scientist than Charles Darwin!
A recent paper suggested instead that Toxodon, alongside all non-litopternan South American are a sister group to Afrothere's based on morphology. Given dna studies on Toxodon itself I'm pretty sure it doesn't hold much water for Meridiungulates.
@@Only_God_Is_Allah_SWT C-section
@@Only_God_Is_Allah_SWT still basically a south american rhino
just like how the north american equivalent to the elephant was the wooly mammoth
big whoop
@@ambergris5705 Me too! Glad I'm able to see visual similarities between animal skulls and have an idea of what group of animals it belongs to. Even when they're extinct.
The amount of strange features toxodon has made me think it could only be related to the Tapir, so that was a satisfying conclusion
I mean, yeah, but they weren't that close. Also pyrotheres seemed to be very similar to elephant ancestors.
@@geoffzuo9831 Tapirs are actually from South America, just like the toxodons. They also said in the video that they were more related to tapirs. So really, they are very close.
@@mikaylaguiang2458 For reference, horses and rhinos, which Eurasia and North America, are closer to tapirs. Remember that south America was an island along with Antarctica and Australia until 4 million years ago. Tapirs crossed into south America at that time along with mammoths, smilodon, bears, deer, and others, so no. Tapirs aren't that close, and any resemblance is superficial and convergent
@@mikaylaguiang2458 the most recent sources suggest that toxodon was a pan-perisodactyl, which means that all true perisodactyls are closer related to each other than to it.
@@geoffzuo9831 Wow did not know that. Thanks!
PBS Eons: "Isolation breeds weirdness. That's something I learned the hard way during lockdown."
I laughed so hard, and I think I border depression if it indicates how much I laugh these times.
It also breeds GAINS in his case, however.
He knows the audience well.
Oh, I full on scream-laughed at that! It will get me giggling in weeks to come, I just know it
Ok I'm just 17 and like bio ain't my subject but You guys explain everything so Nicely it's so so so easy to understand and so much fun
Introverts would all disagree with this.
"Isolation breeds weirdness"
*Aussie looks around Australian animals... YEP!
Rest of the world looks at Aussies … yep!
Mostly very dangerous weirdness.
@@CoiledDracca less dangerous more weak for dangers from outside of the island
@@reizosaurus6434 Except for humans.
@@jackdavids2723 😂👍
pbs sparked my love of evolution and ancient animals through shows like dinosaur train others. im so glad that pbs is there for the younger generation to inspire them to explore and protect the world around them!
oh my god dinosaur train brings back memories
@@wolfkitty42
Me too!
Me three
Me four.
Sameee wild kratts too
I'd be very interested in seeing an exploration of the over- and under-fleshing of reconstructed animals from dinosaurs to mammals.
same! I read about a funny experiment where students were given skeletons of modern animals and most of their recreations were hideous. So I‘d love to hear more about the thought process of experts
Seconding this! I'm fascinated by how our recreations can be flawed
I would love to see an episode on the evolution of ELEPHANT TRUNKS! It's such a weird adaption, I'm just so curious about how that could have come about!!!!
I keep posting this idea, but i have no way of knowing if anyone at eons has already seen it, and I really think it'd be an amazing episode!!!!!
I second this!
I believe they have!!
In the Zoology Honours course in India, there's an entire section titled, "The evolution of dentition in Mammalia" :-)🙏
They look so happy in those ilustrations! Omg 🤧💕
That's us before climate change 😳🌍
One of my favorite evolutionary animals still living is the Okapi. It looks like a few different animals, at once. Super cute.
The best part about the submitted jokes at the end is Blake’s reaction every time he has to read out loud another cringeworthy pun.
Though last weeks Kallie reaction topped them all.
@@westrim Fair enough. And I have to say that was one of the few jokes that actually made me laugh as well
PBS Eons: "Isolation breeds weirdness."
After 1 1/2 years of quarantine, we are what?
Odd-minded mammals, I guess
You can tell he had a healthy social life it it took him that long to discover that fact though.
Crazy.
You quarantined?
@@johnhasslinger1779 some of us still are, because we’re high risk.
Eons is hands down the most educational and fun channel for all ages on YT for the Dino lovers. Tell us what we have to do to get more regular uploads. You name it and we'll do it! 💪
Apparently you're not following Vegan Teacher
@@adm4939 🤡
@@adm4939 What the heck?!
@OFD Probably involves donating to the patreon, because I'm guessing that's one of the major ways they fund the channel. Also watching ads all the way through, liking the video so it gets more hits, subscribing... The more popular the videos get, the more the TH-cam algorithm favors the channel overall, which makes eons ad revenue. 🤷♂️
YDAW is also pretty fun and educational (they focus on dinos specifically), but they upload even less often than PBS Eons, cause they have way less funding.
I'm very glad that Macrauchenia finally got a spotlight/discussion in an eons video! And I'm also very glad to have finally found out what modern mammalian group it's most closely related to!
You can see the pain in Blake's eyes reading that theropuns. Real, actual, physical pain.
Come on guys, raise the hoofs of your pun standards.
They need to stop horsing around.
I just wanted to say thank you for making these videos. It’s become a regular part of my daily habit to watch Eons. I love the information, the great way your team explains the material, the graphics and the humor. All of you have very calming and soothing voices I’ve developed a habit of watching Eons when I want to unwind from my stressful work day (not to say it’s boring, it doesn’t put me to sleep)
Watching from Uruguay right now, didn't expect we'd get an Eons cameo! Awesome video like always.
I always love this guy's reactions to the puns, no fake laughter.
I found this channel a few years ago and I’m always super excited to see another episode come out! This channel got me more interested in creatures from the past and how they lived, ate and went extinct. Just to know how many different ways animals can go extinct gives me something more to research on!
Thank you Eons for everything you all do!
Love these videos
Alright?
same
Me too.
Bruh same
Can we take a moment to appreciate the photo at 3:21. Someone took real time drawing that, above anything else.
I absolutely love this channel, it's so informative and interesting!
Darwin also had extinction in mind when he observed the effect of drought on niata cattle, which cannot graze as closely as ordinary cattle. Darwin also had extinction in mind when he contemplated the rate of mountain-building and erosion on his trip over the Andes from Chile to Mendoza.
Search "The Voyage of the Beagle, niata cattle" and "The Voyage of the Beagle, Mountain Torrents".
Darwin: " ... when listening to the rattling noise of these torrents, and calling to mind that whole races of animals have passed away from the face of the earth, and that during this whole period, night and day, these stones have gone rattling onwards in their course, I have thought to myself, can any mountains, any continent, withstand such waste?"
Poetry.
From the thumbnail I already knew it was Toxodon, one of the native South American ungulates. Love how animals there came to resemble those elsewhere.
Edit: The unidentified mammal at 4:23 and 6:03 that resembles a short-trunked elephant (or a tapir with tusks) appears to be _Pyrotherium_ or "fire beast".
PBS Eons: "Isolation breeds weirdness."
Me: "Yes! I know this because of high school."
PBS Eons: "That's something I learned the hard way during lockdown."
Me: "Amature"
XD The joke struck my funny zone hard
Amatuer*
@@ItsDurry
Amateure*
@@Alex-fv2qs
Amateurea*
love these videos, so much info packed into one neat little package.
Those jokes and puns at the end made me want to commit an extinction level event on my eardrums
Great content! I've been waiting for this video since yesterday, and it did not disappoint
"In what's now Uruguay" you said, but Uruguay became a country in 1830, three years before Darwin land in here (i'm uruguayan) so Darwin land IN Uruguay. Anyway great video!
1828, not 1830.
@@godfreypigott I know that if you look at it on wikipedia it says 1828 but that was just a declaration of independence. Uruguay as a state/country formed in 1830
@@gustavoB95 No, 1830 was merely the year that their constitution came into force.
I may have to go to school again because some person in youtube says that my country is from 28 and not from 30
@@gustavoB95 Indeed you will. Perhaps you should learn that what you get taught at school and what actually happened are two different things.
Absolutely top notch episode, interweaving the history of evolution and the history of our understanding of it. Loved it !
I find it hilarious that creationists think that Darwin making a mistake about evolution would somehow disprove his theory, completely failing to realise that we’ve already corrected his mistakes and further proven evolution to be true.
"He made a mistake! Shut it all down! Darwin copyrighted evolution so no one can ever come up with it again!"
@@themonsterwithin6495 its impossible to accept lies
I’m not a creationist myself. But I find it funny how I hear more about creationism from Naturalists than I ever would otherwise. I’m not in either camp but it makes the naturalists look pretty petty.
@@themonsterwithin6495 And what does that have to do with anything? Humans also drive cars, does that mean everything came to be from driving a car?
@@themonsterwithin6495 Which creator god caused mutations in the ABCA12 gene ?
Do You think that mutation is acceptable, necessary and crucial to keep ?
I love this host, dude is such an inspirational person! We could have so many good conversations :D hope there are plenty of ppl like us.
PBS eons is so much more fun than my evolution class 😌❤️
This is such a cute rendition at 3:54! It makes me so happy!
Its official! We must recognize "lockdown" as an evolutionary force!!!! Lol ... long live the clade of weirdness ...! Great and fun report, Eon.
Great show.
Toxodon was an enigma for so long and Macrauchenia was considered a camel's relative.
I remember old girl Macrau since I was a kid - her looks were so amazing :)
Thanks a lot.
NGL, I read this title as "The Creature That STOMPED Darwin" at first and was like 👁👄👁
Now that would have been hilarious. I love the story near the beginning with the kids using the skull as target practice... Wow!
I have a much-loved blue plastic Macrauchenia toy I got at as a kid at La Brea Tarpits, I think. I've always been struck by how much it resembled the tapir, one of my favorite _extant_ animals, and was surprised a few years ago to read that it was thought to only be due to convergent evolution. Cool to hear the resemblance I noted as a kid turned out to be familial after all! And the ep. was exceptional.
Loved this! ❤ Another one I'd love to see would dive into what cross-species hybridization (such as dingo/dog, chimpanzee/bonobo, etc.) tells us about the boundaries and meaning of species in the tree of life!
Pretty awesome video ! Thanks !
P.S. that stare and the "Alright... I'll allow it..." is the most honest that you have ever been about these "jokes" and I appreciate it. :)
Hey Eons, here's something I want you to shine your light on: The *Capitanian mass extinction event* ... Somehow it's a distinct major mass extinction event that's now showing up on that marine extinction intensity graph I'm sure we're all familiar with. How was it overlooked until now? When did scientists notice it? What evidence led it to being recognized? Do we know what caused it? To what extent (if any) were it's casualties misattributed to the Great Dying previously? Is it likely there are more such events, still waiting to be discovered?
It's kind of scary how an _entire extinction event_ can just disappear in history. I know it happened a long time ago but it's still a big deal 💀
I wanted to share that thank you pbs eons crew i am leaning so much and that you guys helped me with my science class , my teacher was shocked that i knew something and i am grateful i found this channel so thank you pbs eons 💕😁
So if toxodon and co are the sister group to perissodactyls, that would place them in laurasiathera along with bats and Carnivora. So the common ancestor to these strange South American mammals must have arisen from the northern continents the came from Laurasia. Which bodes the question, how did they get to South America, which split off from Gondwana the south continent and remained mostly isolated.
This seems to be the third introduction of mammals to the continent during its time of isolation, with the other two I know of being the new world monkeys and cavies. I wonder if these groups arrived at a similar time from similar circumstances, or if it was three completely unrelated sets of events for those taxa to find the continent.
Speaking of ungulates in South America, how did tapirs get between the new world and old? Based on how close species on the different continents seem, I would hazard a guess it was a recent cross over via the Bering and panama land bridges. Tapirs are probable the group of large mammals I know least about, so I think they would make an excellent topic for an episode.
Well given the discovery of other groups of placental mammals outside of the continents which form their Cenozoic ranges back in the Maastrichtian stage Cretaceous I also wouldn't be surprised if the two groups common ancestor had radiated out prior to the KPg extinction if not too long after that since the survival of species in different hemispheres seems to be complicated. Granted that would require there to have been some faunal exchange between the Laurasian fauna and the Gondwanan fauna. of course since most mammals and basically all KPg survivors were quite small the last common ancestor of these ungulates was probably suitably sized to be able to raft over.
That said there are some inexplicably weird instances of a clade appearing outside its known range in the fossil record which raise questions about whether there might have been mechanisms for faunal interchanges that aren't seen in modern ecosystems or act on longer timescales than humans have been around.
For instance how did a Gondwanan titanosaur get back into North America after the clades absence since the early Cretaceous? For one Alamosaurus most closely resembles South American species which is strange given that the Americas were actively spreading apart up until the suspiciously timed extinction of the Caribbean mid ocean ridge 66 Mya. Of courses there has recently been a similar titanosaur found in Australia though given that South America was still connected to Antarctica and Australia at the time it gives more hypothetical avenues for such an animal to get back into Eurasia and then cross over the land bridge that had reformed 67 Mya with North America (likely as a consequence of the complex subduction system around what is now the Pacific basin which was likely still in place when the Mesozoic ended.
TDLR Species migration is weird and complicated having potentially somehow allowed one of the largest animals ever to show up after more than ~50 million years absence in North America thus an Ungulate somehow doing the reverse journey some 7 million years later wouldn't be too surprising to me.
AFAIK caviomorphs and primates are both more recent arrivals (and both pretty much certainly from Africa) compared to the putative ancestors of meridiungulates
Also yes tapirs arrived in South America in the Great Interchange, together with all those cats, camels, deers, canids, mastodons... The South American species are closely related to recently extinct ones in North America, where the group originated, while the Malayan tapir is a slightly more distant relative; tapirs used to range all the way to western Europe when the climate was right for them, and I think the modern asian species is essentially a remnant of that eurasian radiation (will have to check more precisely on this though)
@@marcotedesco8954 The caviomorphs and primates are immigrants from Africa to South America. Scientists haven’t explained why marsupials went to Australia but never went to Africa. We know from the fossil record monotremes at one time where present in South America.
There are more than 3 dispersal events of mammals into South America. Just last year a fossil parapithecid primate was found in South America, which indicates at least 2 primate dispersal events to South America. There's also the pantodont Alcidedorbignya, which were otherwise a northern group of mammals.
Stunning video, this channel is growing better.
Raise the hoof. Theropods.
I really hate how much I love these jokes.
I just found this channel and I have to say, I adore it. This is wonderful!
Darwin was to biology what Einstein was to physics.
I just got a new set of foster kittens, and i was listening to this video to fall asleep to. The click/chirp sound in the background keeps making me think baby kittens are meowing 😋
Love when PBS Eons video pops up on my feed
Honestly I really love the show. Makes me feel like I'm watching nova. I will be supporting your merch
Dang, the last time I was this early, the radiodonts were still in charge.
Underrated joke
That joke is so old, the last time I heard it I fell off my Hallucigenia.
I use this channel to help me sleep, I am sure not the only one. This is the second video that has unnecessary loud noises at the end, waking me up. Please, let it not become a habit.
That was a great video, learned some stuff I didn't know. You don't really see much about South American animals. I would love a video on thylacosmilus
pbs eons is my new favorite channel...thanks!
I really love this channel soo entertaining and interesting:)
Amazing! I could watch videos like these all day long 👍👍
If Richard Owen and Charles Darwin was stumped my this curious animal, you know it's gonna be an interesting study!
I just want to see more of this stuff I hope this channel stays on forever
Could you talk about the South American extinct marsupials?
I think they already have.
@@skippy9214 well I also think so, but couldn’t find much, want to see my channel, it’s stop Motion
You mean sparassodonts? I’m sorry, but sparassodonts aren’t true marsupials.
@@douglasthescottishtwin3989 they are kinda-sorta-but-not-really marsupials
As soon as he said the words "isolation" and "weird animals", every Aussie was like "yep".
Blake's muscles still evolving!
He is going through bodybuilding phase
This is pretty darned cool - they were definitely totally different than the direction horses went in their evolution! No wonder they stumped Darwin!
0:12 isolation breeds uniqueness*
You're unique bud❤️
Love this episode. Some animals can be confusing in terms of what groups they belong to. Don't forget evolutionary history of pinnipeds and tyrannosaurids
The skull and back part of the jaw really reminded me of a horse so I am proud to have recognized that although I’m starting to think that has more to do with a similarity in diet than anything else
"Isolation breeds weirdness, which is something I learned the hard way during lockdown" 😂
Charles Darwin; you may have heard of him.
Average person: Was he the guy that wrote A Christmas Carol?
Yesn't
Temember this one fact
Darwin was not an anthropologist. He was a Geologist.
He also stole work from actual anthropologists.
Ayyy my favourite host is back
Thanks for making these videos me and my daughter love them
Darwin looks so different without his beard
Darwin went through all that effort just for Wallace to have an idea while sipping tea.
Kent Hovind will not be able to comprehend this studies 😂
Kent hovind intellectually understands it. But he’s a charlatan who’s pedals creationism as a means to swindle his cult members
The music and sound design in this video is just perfection.
*Me about to sleep*
*PBS Eons uploads*
Hello sleep deprivation
OMG YOU HAVE CRAB PIN MERCH?!?!?! ..... *calms self* Must watch video before rushing over to the link. "It didn't fit where we expected it to" seems like a fairly common occurrence just based on all the Eons videos I've seen. And it makes sense, our understanding of history, evolution, etc has changed so much over time.
Always a joy to hear from you folks, mahalo for sharing!
On the topic of giant ancient islands that aren't islands anymore I'd love to see an Eons episode covering ancient India. The points in time when giant landmasses we know today were islands are some of the most intriguing subjects of Cenozoic paleontology. South America and Africa are classic examples of this but the one that may have had the most impact on the modern world is probably India. Most people don't realize that India was actually an island for most of its history after the breakup of Pangaea and its eventual collision with Asia and its modern location had profound effects on creating the modern Cenozoic we see across the world today. There are even some endemic species that are remnants of its island past, like arboreal crabs that live hundreds of miles from any coastline which are leftovers from its original island ecology. Make it happen Eons!
Can you guys please make a video about amdrewsarchus. I love this channels content
I love this channel so much
Soooo... is this the missing link between mouse an elephant, and the reason why they are afraid of each other? :D
3:22 Macrauchenia is no longer thought to have a trunk, but a snout more like that of a moose or saiga antelope
1:06 that's obviously a cyclops skull
Case closed! _slaps hands_
One of the best channels on youtube.
@PBS Eons Where i can find the music used in this episode?
Hey! It's the Tik Tok guy! I didn't need the algorithm this time. I was already subscribed 😎
Thanks for subbing! (BdeP)
:15 lolololol
Blake, you are my presenter crush. You comedic delivery *chefs kiss*
And I like your face 🤓 thank you and your team for all your hard work!!
There was a paper published earlier this summer ("Out of Africa: A New Afrotheria Lineages Rises from Extinct South American Mammals," Avilla and Mothe, 2021) that questions the earlier studies concerning the evolutionary relationships between these South American critters. That paper argues that Litopterna (Macrauchenia and its close relatives) are related to horses, while Notoungulata (Toxodon and its relatives) are closer to elephants.
Can we get to the hand changes in the ornithopods? (Dryosaurids, Iguanodonts,Hadrosaurs & Rhabdodonts)
YES!!! Daddy Eons with his vast knowlege and huge biceps! love this!
still my favorite host
Lol half way through this video and loving it I realized that none of my friends would ever even click to watch this video and that’s why they call me a geek
I really like this host. He's always passionate and always appears professional.
Horses may have some oddball relatives, but let's face it, so do I
"1833 in what is now Uruguay"
It was also Uruguay then, we declared our independence in 1830.
Happy 9-years-early bicentennial.
I love how presenter was borderline neurotic first time I saw him and now he is chill and chiseled beast
Would you state about the dementia praecox, anorexis, or what?
And FYI he was going through a bodybuilding phase recently