They really are the perfect predator. I think the fact that they have stayed in the same niche through multiple mass extinction events is evidence of that as well.
@@aymensammar6873 i think that by "perfect" the meaning is being extradorinary adaptable to the enviornment an animal lives. which is different for crocs and sharks most of the time, but each of their own. i put the word perfect in quotation marks bc obviously it's not a biological term and no animal is really perfect.
Well only in their specific niche. Humans have been successful predators in fishing, trawling, hunting, farming, trapping etc etc across dozens of environments. Seems like we are a much better predator overall. Even hunting the game that crocs hunt, we can do better.
@@SamudraSanyal Sorry if this is nitpicky, but since modern crocodilians lack feather-like structures then the simplest assumption is that the earliest most basal archosaurs lacked them as well. Feather-like structures could be an ancestral phenotype within the clade avemetatarsalia though, which includes all archosaurs more closely related to birds than crocodilians. So that would be all dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and a few others. There's some good artwork out there of early avemetatarsalians that includes a fluffy coat of some kind if you wanna see what that would've looked like.
saltwater crocodiles remain the most prolific predators of humans to this day, being one of the few non-human animals which will routinely hunt humans for food if given the opportunity (unlike alot of non-human animals people perceive as dangerous, like wolves, which mostly won't hunt humans unless they are desperate or starving)
@@spiderstheythem wolves never learnt to view us as prey, but crocodiles have co-existed with us for so long that hunting each other was an inevitability. Another thing would probably be that crocodiles view us similar to other prey like monkeys and even some apes. We do look nearly identical. When 2 species coexist for a long time they develop a relationship. Sometimes a symbiotic one, but when one eats the other they become aggressive towards eachother. If you've ever wondered why humans in europe could ride horses, while we never were able to ride zebras (there are more reasosn that factor in like the anatomy of zebras and also them generally being bad tempered) it's because zebras are naturally afraid and aggressive to humans, because we've hunted them for so long.
We're actually pretty closely related to both rodents and lagomorphs. Apart from a few families in the Euarchonta super-order (like colugos and tree-shrews), they're the closest relatives of us primates.
The radiation and adaptation of the crocodilians is one of my favorite subjects in paleontology. It's amazing the kind of niches they've filled over their couple hundred million years on Earth. Not only that but also the idea that many crocodilians we're in fact warm blooded like mammals and dinosaurs and only reverted to a cold blooded metabolism as a side effect of their semi-aquatic ambush lifestyle.
It was interesting to imagine how the crocodiles might have survived the asteroid impact. Even at that time, the remaining animals would seek out water to drink, making them easy prey, and the lower temperature slowing their metabolisms only helped them to survive. I imagine that the huge numbers of dead and dying animals around meant there was plenty to scavenge too, and their semi-aquatic lifestyle limited their exposure to the contaminated atmosphere. Truly incredible.
I love how, just because of the way time works, we have to name things in kind of a backwards way. We call them "Bird ankles" even though they are the ankles inherited by birds and not from birds.
They are funnily enough the most advanced reptile. Crocodiles happen to be one of the smartest reptiles along with the fact that instead of having 3 chambered heart, they have 4 chambered heart. They are more related to birds than they are to any other reptile yes, that includes lizards.
I love your videos. Your voice is absolutely brain-meltingly soothing! Definitely something I need right before I go to bed, or at any time of the day!
I adore crocodilians and crocodylomorphs in general. And so this was lovely! Giant forms especially fascinate me from deinosuchus and sarchosuchus in the Cretaceous through purussaurus and the terrifying terrestrial sebecids of Miocene South America. And also the super weird variants of the Triassic.
The OG Spinosaurus, Arizonasaurus 😄 They were the first real dinosaurs, really. Reminds me of sabertooth cats and how a relative of cats already did the same thing much earlier!
When I was a kid growing up, Jurassic Park was all the rage, and of course I was a big fan of dinosaurs. As I've grown up though, I've gotten a renewed appreciation for crocodilians. They are almost like dinosaurs, but also kinda different. Their lineage if fascinating and I wish we got to see more of their family members that weren't just ambush predators at water supplies. The many famous "land crocs" for example would have been amazing to get to see in action.
Correction: Baurusuchus lived in Brazil around 80 million years ago, not Madagascar, though the island also terrestrial crocodiles present in its fauna during that time.
even after the KT extinction crocodilians continued evolving and diversifying, from filterfeeding crocodiles in the amazon to blind cave crocodiles that exist to this day, as well as an entirely different lineage of crocodylomorpha, notosuchians which were terrestial predators, continued to exist and thrive until several million years ago. people rly dont give crocs enough credit in how adaptable they are, and how diverse their history is.
A video talking about the first ever predator, Sea Scorpions, would be really cool! Maybe expanding to, 'What were the first predators to exist', talking about what succeeded them and what not
Sea scorpions are not the first predator ever ^^' The earliest known predator would be Anomalocaris, in particular A. canadensis (although older Anomalocaris had been found), they're 50 millions years older than Eurypterids (520 MA versus 467 MA) And there was probably predators in the Ediacarian fauna (635 to 541 MA), but the fauna is so weird, we don't know what they were exactly XD
@@DG-iw3yw The problem when you include microbes in the definition of predator is that the definition "a species killing another species for food" also include herbivores as predators ^^ So the usual definition would be an animal killing another animal species for food ^^
Others have already mentioned it, but omitting crocodylian evolution during the cenozoic does rather hurt this. I understand the short video format and that covering cenozoic crocodylians would roughly double the video's length, but a second part is desirable.
A question I've often wondered about that no one seems to ask is how crococilians have managed to survive for so long but phytosaurs could not despite having almost all the same ecological adaptations. It's quite likely that phytosaurs also had slow metabolisms that could go for long periods without food, and ambushing prey at water's edge or scavenging carcasses is just as viable in one mass extinction event as it is in any other, so what was different about the End-Triassic that no large semiaquatic predator could survive that wasn't present in the End-Cretaceous to allow ancestral crocodilians, some of which were surprisingly large, to survive into the Cenozoic?
This is why i love both crocs and gators so much better than hippos, lions, or any other type of animal. They're basically smart surviving living dinosaurs. Which is awesome to still think that they are still alive and still evolving today.
not to mention we even have terrestrial crocodilian relatives from cenozoic, the sebecids and barinasuchus being the largest fully terrestrial predator to exist after the extinction of non avian dinosaurs went extinct so their diversity is really something more recent too since the most recently extinct species went extinct only just 11 million years ago, they literally existed for the 55 million years of the cenozoic
Yea, he could've been more clear that birds descend from sauropods, but were a completely independent lineage from the Jurassic. By the time of the KT extinction birds may have been evolving separately from all other dinosaurs for 80M years or more.
@@danielwalker6653 Actually, they‘re Theropods and in the taxon of Coelurosauria, which includes f.e. also the Tyrannosauroidea. They‘re not independent, they are just dinosaurs :D What does evolving separately means? Sauropods or Stegosaurs also evolved „separately“ from other dinosaurs, that‘s what every species kinda does: They‘re filling their ecological nique. Saurischia and Ornithischia evolved „separately“ a way longer time ago but are both considered as dinosaurs.
@magnus Theropods, yes. I agree with that. But it is important to make distinctions when animals evolve enough traits to make them seperate. While we stem from Synapsids, which come from earlier reptiles, which come from amphibians, which come from fish, which come from the earliest chordates and then worms, etc. etc., I don’t think anyone would call us a Synapsid or Reptile or Amphibian… there are clear differences in our anatomy. While the earliest bird is a dinosaur, one of those earliest relatives, at one point they are just birds. Do any Theropods have beaks? Or the same chest? And I‘m not sure how many had hollow bones, but I think I can safely assume most or all of the bigger ones that aren’t in the Raptor-family didn’t have hollow bones. And while a good portion of Theropods might have had varying degrees of feathers, depending on where they live and the size (but we need more complete specimens from all over the family tree), I would say the plummage was quite different and with a different purpose from birds. And probably one of the most important distinctions which well, I guess has reverted the past few million years in birds but that’s not important, dinosaurs can’t fly. Their bodies clearly aren’t made for that, there are enough differences in their anatomy that the whole way they move changed completely! Flying, what a feat. It’s not easy! But birds have an anatomy that lets them, so yeah the first few might glide similar to Microraptor or Archeopteryx, but at some point you can 100% say something is a bird now, and not a dinosaur anymore. Those are just the ancestors. Just like how we are mammals, with mammary glands, and we have skin and hair, and we have advanced lungs and 2 pairs of limbs for movement on land. (to compare us to Fish, Amphibians, Reptiles and Synapsids)
@@MajinObama But paraphyletic groups are not scientific because they ignore the concept of zoology. Evolution doesn‘t newarrange the family tree, but it makes it more interesting!
Baurusuchus in Madagascar? I wasn't aware this genus range expanded beyond South America. After all, it's named after Bauru, a city 261,5 KM from mine here in Brazil
I think Reptilia should be split into Squamata (lizards and snakes), Archosauria (or maybe Avesuchia), and Testudinia (turtles). I mean, if we're going to go all by cladistics, remember that mammals also share an ancestor with reptiles. We split off much earlier than birds did from "the traditional reptiles", but in some ways some mammals are more "reptilian" than birds; platypuses for example still have the sprawling gait of lizards, and our "two-way" respiratory system, versus the "one-way" system in birds, is why only one class of mammals has managed to achieve powered flight, and without reaching the enormous size of some flying birds like the wandering albatross. The way I see it, new species and even classes have to start somewhere; what's wrong with saying that a whole new class can start out of one branch of Reptilia/Archosauria/whichever you prefer?
Lizards, snakes, worm lizards and the tuatara together comprise Lepidosauria. Monitor lizards have also evolved a one way breathing system, like birds, but what matters is that archosaurs and lepidosaurs are more closely related to each other than to other groups.
Tell you what makes crocodiles even more impressive survivors than theyre often seen as, they actually have changed a lot and the ones around today are just the absolute most survivable of an incredibly successful lineage of reptiles.
My big question is, when did crocodiles lose their lips? And for what reason? Was it to gain an advantage for pulling down large prey, and not suffering lip injuries? If so , that may have happened before they entered the water, and if so, dinosaurs were probably also lipless, regardless of what modern ideals are about that subject.
Baurusuchus is not from Madagascar nor is it one of the largest terrestrial predators of the time (it's only ~3m as opposed to most abelisauroids being the same size or larger). Maybe you were thinking of Razanandrongobe? Also, one important thing missing from your section on Sarcosuchus is both the isotope values indicating they did feed on dinosaurs and the skull shape still being quite robust even if lacking the capabilities for deathroll, being able to perform a deathroll /=/ eating larger prey. Unaware why you put Deinosuchus in the mid cretaceous, it's from the Campanian which is strictly late Cretaceous. Additionally, Crocodylians do not like eating rotten flesh, they really hate eating it and will just refuse to eat it if you give it to them most of the time. Your bit about mentioning how Alligators are cold resistant is dependent on Alligatoroids being similar to modern Alligatorines, which isn't quite true and most alligatorines probably weren't well adapted towards the cold either. Besides that, was a pretty cool video! Glad to see someone talking about their evolutionary history and not calling them living fossils!
I don’t get your rotten meat part. I’m sure ancient crocodiles would be forced to eat rotting meat due to a lack of fresh meat because, you know, an extinction just happened
The rotten meat part sounds pretty nitpicky considering the fact a croc doesn’t know whether carrion could be his last meal or not. We can observe crocodilians eat carrion somewhat frequently for this same reason.
@@edmundshan4 I agree with your other statements, and I must add the fact that when crocodilians avoid rotten meat, it’s usually because they’re fed somehow/just gotten used to fresh meat.
Can you do a video on the evolution of sharks? I mainly asking because I member a special on the animal planet channel that talked about a prehistoric shark that was very deadly in a swamp environment that lived millions of years ago
What's funny about the whole "crocodiles are so old" thing is that birds aren't exactly *that* much younger Evolution is just weird Sharks though? Older than trees
They’ve been known to exhibit human level intelligence. They’ve mastered opening doors and are technically “trainable” though instincts will still drive it to attack you.
It's little wonder early dinosaur concepts based themselves off Crocodiles. I didn't actually know crocodiles were closely related to birds until this video, but I've often heard about dinosaurs being the ancestor to birds, or dinosaurs even being birds themselves. I thought crocodiles were quite distinct from dinosaurs despite T-Rex and the crocodile both having very gnarly jaws and tiny forearms. So in a way, I'm guessing I'm going back a bit to envisioning many dinosaurs perhaps closely resembling a mishmash of both birds and crocodiles in looks. There still a bit of 'crocodile' in the dinosaurs even if they aren't actually the same.
The "family tree" in the video makes It seem a little weird, like dinosaurs and birds are sister clades, but they aren't! Not all dinosaurs are birds, of course, but birds are all theropods, which actually still imposes limitations to them today (like what size can they get while still being able to fly, because to take off they rely on their legs, unlike, say, a pterodactyl). And dinosaurs back then were probably more diverse than mammals today, just within theropods you had non-feathered, feathered, partially feathered dinosaurs, warm-blooded, cold-blooded, partially warm-blooded dinosaurs, dinosaurs with beaks, dinosaurs with plumes, dinosaurs with "bird hips" (ironically, a group that does not include birds), birds with teeth, and long tails, and claws on their wings, there was even a "failed" dinosaur that had a feathered skin membrane! And some "modern birds", like fowl (and, controversially, paleognaths), have already branched off at the time of non-avian dinosaurs, and were carving niches for themselves before the extiction. Also, fun fact, theropods don't have a full wrist mobility, they can't move it downwards and pretty much only can use the wrists for a "hugging" movement, which, in retrospect, seems like an important aspect of their evolution.
You could have also mentioned the plant eating crocodiles such as Iharkutosuchus and maybe that some of the surviving crocodiles where the largest cenozoic terrestrial predators.
despite their reptilian appearence they are closet related to birds then other reptiles. this sentence is really weird. as it looks like you are saying that crocodillians are not reptiles because they are closely related to birds. but thats a crooked way to think about it. because birds technically are reptiles. just like primates are mammals
5:13 'modern crocodilians', not crocodiles 5:25 again, crocodilians, the point would be incorrect in the case of modern crocodiles. Moreover, depending on what you actually mean by 'modern; the point may be wrong anyway.
"Crocodiles" is sometimes used to refer to all members of the order Crocodilia, with the "true crocodiles" being the subset we usually just call crocodiles. I personally use "crocodilians" to refer to members of Crocodilia because I think it's less confusing/ambiguous, but "crocodiles" is not entirely wrong.
An amazing video! However i noticed one mistake that you made about Sarcosuchus. It is not from the Dryosauridae family but the Pholidosauridae family. Other than that, good job! :3
I dated this girl who’s parents were super religious & they were part of this Christian sect that didn’t believe in the existence of dinosaurs lol. They sincerely shunned the idea of dinosaurs. They even shunned Harry Potter movies because they practiced witch craft lol. Imagine being THAT brainwashed hahaha 🤣🤦🏽♂️
I always liked the idea that evolution one day just got it right and then just stayed the same for like 300 million years but I guess there is more to it than that
Cancel the dinner with your parents babe. Tell them Moth Light Media just dropped another instant classic
Babe please dim the lights and pop the champagne…moth light media kino is on the menu
Lmao I'm legit putting off seeing my friends rn to watch this
@@mortalzeus7952 I was literally just about to walk out the door to the gym and went back in just to watch this.
Moth Light Enthusiasts roll up
😂 this
Getting 2 Moth Light Media videos within less than a week? What a treat!
They really are the perfect predator. I think the fact that they have stayed in the same niche through multiple mass extinction events is evidence of that as well.
“Try harder nature.”
@@tcadityaa then we got Walkodiles after a little bit. great
using your logic sharks are the perfect predators.. they survived 5 mass extinction events
@@aymensammar6873 i think that by "perfect" the meaning is being extradorinary adaptable to the enviornment an animal lives. which is different for crocs and sharks most of the time, but each of their own.
i put the word perfect in quotation marks bc obviously it's not a biological term and no animal is really perfect.
Well only in their specific niche. Humans have been successful predators in fishing, trawling, hunting, farming, trapping etc etc across dozens of environments. Seems like we are a much better predator overall. Even hunting the game that crocs hunt, we can do better.
The evolution of feathers would be interesting I think
very
Especially in relation to the 'pycnofeathers' or whatever that the pterosaurs had. Were feather-like structures ancestral to archosaurs?
@@SamudraSanyal Sorry if this is nitpicky, but since modern crocodilians lack feather-like structures then the simplest assumption is that the earliest most basal archosaurs lacked them as well. Feather-like structures could be an ancestral phenotype within the clade avemetatarsalia though, which includes all archosaurs more closely related to birds than crocodilians. So that would be all dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and a few others. There's some good artwork out there of early avemetatarsalians that includes a fluffy coat of some kind if you wanna see what that would've looked like.
It would be nice but unfortunately there's too much we don't know about the evolution of feathers to adequately describe I feel
Probably coincides with the evolution of warm blooded reptiles.
Crocs terrify me but in an "I respect your ability to rip me to shreds" kinda way.
Gotta commend their resilience, tactics, and good parenting!
oh yeah as a floridian i love seeing them but you wont see me get in the water.
saltwater crocodiles remain the most prolific predators of humans to this day, being one of the few non-human animals which will routinely hunt humans for food if given the opportunity (unlike alot of non-human animals people perceive as dangerous, like wolves, which mostly won't hunt humans unless they are desperate or starving)
They are about as close to a real-life monster as you can get.
Gud parenting? They cannibalize on young ones.
@@spiderstheythem wolves never learnt to view us as prey, but crocodiles have co-existed with us for so long that hunting each other was an inevitability. Another thing would probably be that crocodiles view us similar to other prey like monkeys and even some apes. We do look nearly identical. When 2 species coexist for a long time they develop a relationship. Sometimes a symbiotic one, but when one eats the other they become aggressive towards eachother.
If you've ever wondered why humans in europe could ride horses, while we never were able to ride zebras (there are more reasosn that factor in like the anatomy of zebras and also them generally being bad tempered) it's because zebras are naturally afraid and aggressive to humans, because we've hunted them for so long.
people are always super suprised that crocodiles and alligators are more distantly related to each other than we are to rodents.
😮🤯 can confirm. I was surprised
We're actually pretty closely related to both rodents and lagomorphs. Apart from a few families in the Euarchonta super-order (like colugos and tree-shrews), they're the closest relatives of us primates.
@@DG-iw3yw no matter what you believe you are related as Jesus did exist just depends on if you believe he’s actually god or just another human
@@harley_hux9671 Jesus was a con man who tricked even people till this day
@@DG-iw3yw I mean...if he actually did exist...yes, you're related to him...in that you're both human. 😅😅😅
The radiation and adaptation of the crocodilians is one of my favorite subjects in paleontology. It's amazing the kind of niches they've filled over their couple hundred million years on Earth. Not only that but also the idea that many crocodilians we're in fact warm blooded like mammals and dinosaurs and only reverted to a cold blooded metabolism as a side effect of their semi-aquatic ambush lifestyle.
It was interesting to imagine how the crocodiles might have survived the asteroid impact. Even at that time, the remaining animals would seek out water to drink, making them easy prey, and the lower temperature slowing their metabolisms only helped them to survive. I imagine that the huge numbers of dead and dying animals around meant there was plenty to scavenge too, and their semi-aquatic lifestyle limited their exposure to the contaminated atmosphere. Truly incredible.
Being aquatic doesn’t necessarily limit exposure to atmospheric chemical contamination.
@@dingdongism yeah, didn’t a majority of aquatic species go extinct during the K-T event as well?
With those kinds of adaptations it was a free 8-ckurse meal, to be enjoyed at their own pleasure.
aquatic life usually suffers the most from mass extinctions.
The plentiful dead and dying animals wouldn't have lasted very long.
Would love a video on giant predators post-dinosaurs, entelodonts for example are fascinating
@Atropus Arbaalish
he said something like entelodonts, anyone would be interesting really.
Sebekids would’ve been nice! …
I think the evolution of grass would be interesting
I love how, just because of the way time works, we have to name things in kind of a backwards way. We call them "Bird ankles" even though they are the ankles inherited by birds and not from birds.
Crocodiles, or that niche anyway, is so ancient that I sometimes forget they ever evolved. In that respect, this was really interesting!
nothing evolved
@@shadowtigers8462 lol why are you here?
They are funnily enough the most advanced reptile.
Crocodiles happen to be one of the smartest reptiles along with the fact that instead of having 3 chambered heart, they have 4 chambered heart. They are more related to birds than they are to any other reptile yes, that includes lizards.
I know this may be out of your usual realm, but I’d love for an evolution video on coral polyps and how they evolved to what they are today.
Know*
Crocs were very diverse in the Mesozoic. There were long legged crocs that could run on land and even one that looked rather like a duck!
Pug Crocs, and the OG Spinosaurus : Arizonasaurus!
I love your videos. Your voice is absolutely brain-meltingly soothing! Definitely something I need right before I go to bed, or at any time of the day!
His voice is. It'd be neat if he did some specificly asmr stuff
3:15 Pterosaurs also survived the Triassic extinction event.
Wait, *two* Moth Light Media videos within the space of a week??? What the heck is happening!
Merry Christmas?
I adore crocodilians and crocodylomorphs in general. And so this was lovely! Giant forms especially fascinate me from deinosuchus and sarchosuchus in the Cretaceous through purussaurus and the terrifying terrestrial sebecids of Miocene South America. And also the super weird variants of the Triassic.
The OG Spinosaurus, Arizonasaurus 😄 They were the first real dinosaurs, really. Reminds me of sabertooth cats and how a relative of cats already did the same thing much earlier!
When I was a kid growing up, Jurassic Park was all the rage, and of course I was a big fan of dinosaurs. As I've grown up though, I've gotten a renewed appreciation for crocodilians. They are almost like dinosaurs, but also kinda different. Their lineage if fascinating and I wish we got to see more of their family members that weren't just ambush predators at water supplies. The many famous "land crocs" for example would have been amazing to get to see in action.
I love that some terrestrial crocodiles looked like something straight out of medieval bestiary.
Not whilst chasing you yourself though!😳
True but only the hooved crocodiles would be a real threat I think! Thank god they’re gone… they were fast!
Another moth video so soon? It's a christmas miracle!
very informative video! i love crocodilians, and I think the other lineages of crocodylomorphs are so interesting!
SUPER NICE
Highly recommend Paleo Analysis for more crocodile facts
a new upload in less than week since the last one.😍
got Covid 2 days ago and was looking for something to cheer me up...and Moth Light Media dropped this🙏
now I need to know how turtles are more bird than lizard
I like turtles
Correction: Baurusuchus lived in Brazil around 80 million years ago, not Madagascar, though the island also terrestrial crocodiles present in its fauna during that time.
even after the KT extinction crocodilians continued evolving and diversifying, from filterfeeding crocodiles in the amazon to blind cave crocodiles that exist to this day, as well as an entirely different lineage of crocodylomorpha, notosuchians which were terrestial predators, continued to exist and thrive until several million years ago. people rly dont give crocs enough credit in how adaptable they are, and how diverse their history is.
A day with an upload from you is a good day
Less than one week since last video! Thank you for this Christmas gift!
Christmas miracle! Two videos in one week! Let's go!
A video talking about the first ever predator, Sea Scorpions, would be really cool!
Maybe expanding to, 'What were the first predators to exist', talking about what succeeded them and what not
Sea scorpions are not the first predator ever ^^'
The earliest known predator would be Anomalocaris, in particular A. canadensis (although older Anomalocaris had been found), they're 50 millions years older than Eurypterids (520 MA versus 467 MA)
And there was probably predators in the Ediacarian fauna (635 to 541 MA), but the fauna is so weird, we don't know what they were exactly XD
@@DG-iw3yw The problem when you include microbes in the definition of predator is that the definition "a species killing another species for food" also include herbivores as predators ^^
So the usual definition would be an animal killing another animal species for food ^^
@@krankarvolund7771 to add on to this, anomalocaris was more specifically the first APEX predator currently known.
Already out there, somewhere.
@@simplypink8375 If you’re the first predator, you’re automatically the first apex predator.
Great video! Summing up the long, complex evolutionary history of crocodiles in under 10 minutes is no easy feat!
I asked myself how they evolved just a week prior and now you make the perfect video to hype me up for my Christmas present pc and isle evrima!
Do a collab with Clint's Reptiles! Tonally, it would be really weird, but I just love both of yall's vids about dinos and such.
Others have already mentioned it, but omitting crocodylian evolution during the cenozoic does rather hurt this. I understand the short video format and that covering cenozoic crocodylians would roughly double the video's length, but a second part is desirable.
pre-video and we all already know this is about to be a banger
man i love crocs
You changed my perspective on alot of stuff in the 1st 30 seconds. Never thought ab why they wouldn't have to change much.
A question I've often wondered about that no one seems to ask is how crococilians have managed to survive for so long but phytosaurs could not despite having almost all the same ecological adaptations. It's quite likely that phytosaurs also had slow metabolisms that could go for long periods without food, and ambushing prey at water's edge or scavenging carcasses is just as viable in one mass extinction event as it is in any other, so what was different about the End-Triassic that no large semiaquatic predator could survive that wasn't present in the End-Cretaceous to allow ancestral crocodilians, some of which were surprisingly large, to survive into the Cenozoic?
I cant sleep without moth light media
This is why i love both crocs and gators so much better than hippos, lions, or any other type of animal. They're basically smart surviving living dinosaurs. Which is awesome to still think that they are still alive and still evolving today.
I mean birds are dinosaurs. Dinosauria is arguably the most successful lineage of terrestrial creatures ever.
You and north02 are the only channels that can scratch my nerdy itch
I though crocodilians were just here from the start, even when the world was inhospitable they were just here like "yeah and what?"
When the title is "how something evolved" you just get my instant deep attention
I love crocodylomorphs and we need more paleo media about them.
This is my favourite yt channel
not to mention we even have terrestrial crocodilian relatives from cenozoic, the sebecids and barinasuchus being the largest fully terrestrial predator to exist after the extinction of non avian dinosaurs went extinct so their diversity is really something more recent too since the most recently extinct species went extinct only just 11 million years ago, they literally existed for the 55 million years of the cenozoic
He made a video about that.
@@balazsmolnar2386 true but this was a nice chance mentioning it again
Nothing like watching moth light media high
You have one mistake: Birds aren‘t related to Dinosaurs, they ARE Dinosaurs!
Yea, he could've been more clear that birds descend from sauropods, but were a completely independent lineage from the Jurassic. By the time of the KT extinction birds may have been evolving separately from all other dinosaurs for 80M years or more.
@@danielwalker6653 Actually, they‘re Theropods and in the taxon of Coelurosauria, which includes f.e. also the Tyrannosauroidea. They‘re not independent, they are just dinosaurs :D
What does evolving separately means? Sauropods or Stegosaurs also evolved „separately“ from other dinosaurs, that‘s what every species kinda does: They‘re filling their ecological nique. Saurischia and Ornithischia evolved „separately“ a way longer time ago but are both considered as dinosaurs.
@magnus Theropods, yes. I agree with that. But it is important to make distinctions when animals evolve enough traits to make them seperate. While we stem from Synapsids, which come from earlier reptiles, which come from amphibians, which come from fish, which come from the earliest chordates and then worms, etc. etc., I don’t think anyone would call us a Synapsid or Reptile or Amphibian… there are clear differences in our anatomy. While the earliest bird is a dinosaur, one of those earliest relatives, at one point they are just birds. Do any Theropods have beaks? Or the same chest? And I‘m not sure how many had hollow bones, but I think I can safely assume most or all of the bigger ones that aren’t in the Raptor-family didn’t have hollow bones. And while a good portion of Theropods might have had varying degrees of feathers, depending on where they live and the size (but we need more complete specimens from all over the family tree), I would say the plummage was quite different and with a different purpose from birds. And probably one of the most important distinctions which well, I guess has reverted the past few million years in birds but that’s not important, dinosaurs can’t fly. Their bodies clearly aren’t made for that, there are enough differences in their anatomy that the whole way they move changed completely! Flying, what a feat. It’s not easy! But birds have an anatomy that lets them, so yeah the first few might glide similar to Microraptor or Archeopteryx, but at some point you can 100% say something is a bird now, and not a dinosaur anymore. Those are just the ancestors. Just like how we are mammals, with mammary glands, and we have skin and hair, and we have advanced lungs and 2 pairs of limbs for movement on land. (to compare us to Fish, Amphibians, Reptiles and Synapsids)
@@MajinObama But paraphyletic groups are not scientific because they ignore the concept of zoology. Evolution doesn‘t newarrange the family tree, but it makes it more interesting!
Pterosaurs were archosaurs that also survived the Triassic extinction! Great video as always though
Baurusuchus in Madagascar? I wasn't aware this genus range expanded beyond South America. After all, it's named after Bauru, a city 261,5 KM from mine here in Brazil
Yeah, he probably meant Razanandrongobe ^^
The ideal Moth Light Media thumbnail here.
Title is like "How Did X Evolve", then show a thumbnail of something way unlike X.
I think Reptilia should be split into Squamata (lizards and snakes), Archosauria (or maybe Avesuchia), and Testudinia (turtles). I mean, if we're going to go all by cladistics, remember that mammals also share an ancestor with reptiles. We split off much earlier than birds did from "the traditional reptiles", but in some ways some mammals are more "reptilian" than birds; platypuses for example still have the sprawling gait of lizards, and our "two-way" respiratory system, versus the "one-way" system in birds, is why only one class of mammals has managed to achieve powered flight, and without reaching the enormous size of some flying birds like the wandering albatross.
The way I see it, new species and even classes have to start somewhere; what's wrong with saying that a whole new class can start out of one branch of Reptilia/Archosauria/whichever you prefer?
Lizards, snakes, worm lizards and the tuatara together comprise Lepidosauria. Monitor lizards have also evolved a one way breathing system, like birds, but what matters is that archosaurs and lepidosaurs are more closely related to each other than to other groups.
Wake up everybody, new Moth Light Media vid just dropped!!!
New video by Moth? Yes please!
This video is so good how have I never seen this channel before
Made my day ❤️
Tell you what makes crocodiles even more impressive survivors than theyre often seen as, they actually have changed a lot and the ones around today are just the absolute most survivable of an incredibly successful lineage of reptiles.
My big question is, when did crocodiles lose their lips? And for what reason? Was it to gain an advantage for pulling down large prey, and not suffering lip injuries? If so , that may have happened before they entered the water, and if so, dinosaurs were probably also lipless, regardless of what modern ideals are about that subject.
I love your thumbnails, They just feel right 😅
Baurusuchus is not from Madagascar nor is it one of the largest terrestrial predators of the time (it's only ~3m as opposed to most abelisauroids being the same size or larger). Maybe you were thinking of Razanandrongobe? Also, one important thing missing from your section on Sarcosuchus is both the isotope values indicating they did feed on dinosaurs and the skull shape still being quite robust even if lacking the capabilities for deathroll, being able to perform a deathroll /=/ eating larger prey. Unaware why you put Deinosuchus in the mid cretaceous, it's from the Campanian which is strictly late Cretaceous. Additionally, Crocodylians do not like eating rotten flesh, they really hate eating it and will just refuse to eat it if you give it to them most of the time. Your bit about mentioning how Alligators are cold resistant is dependent on Alligatoroids being similar to modern Alligatorines, which isn't quite true and most alligatorines probably weren't well adapted towards the cold either. Besides that, was a pretty cool video! Glad to see someone talking about their evolutionary history and not calling them living fossils!
We have a croco-phile here! Lol well done that was fascinating 🐊
I don’t get your rotten meat part. I’m sure ancient crocodiles would be forced to eat rotting meat due to a lack of fresh meat because, you know, an extinction just happened
The rotten meat part sounds pretty nitpicky considering the fact a croc doesn’t know whether carrion could be his last meal or not. We can observe crocodilians eat carrion somewhat frequently for this same reason.
@@duder7396 I'll admit the carrion bit was nitpicky but I stand by the rest (though rotten meat crocodylians refuse to eat in most cases I've seen/
@@edmundshan4 I agree with your other statements, and I must add the fact that when crocodilians avoid rotten meat, it’s usually because they’re fed somehow/just gotten used to fresh meat.
moth media you rule
Can you do a video on the evolution of sharks? I mainly asking because I member a special on the animal planet channel that talked about a prehistoric shark that was very deadly in a swamp environment that lived millions of years ago
Another great video. Thanks and cheers from sunny Vienna, Scott
What's funny about the whole "crocodiles are so old" thing is that birds aren't exactly *that* much younger
Evolution is just weird
Sharks though? Older than trees
And mammals are probably older than birds. Probably older than all dinosaurs.
@@tcadityaa Yespe? Mammals, late triassic. Dinosaurs, late triassic.
Omg I'd forgotten about your channel! You've grown! ,😂
Honestly just give them Human intelligence and they've become the superior being to live on earth
They’ve been known to exhibit human level intelligence. They’ve mastered opening doors and are technically “trainable” though instincts will still drive it to attack you.
Crocodilians are some of my favourite animals. Loved this video!
Struggling to wrap my mind around Deinosuchus being as tall as a person. Not as long as a person. As TALL as a person.
big boi
thank you for plentiful uploads mr moth man
I always wondered about the humble beginnings of one of nature's few "questionably humble" creatures: the crocodile (and to an extent, the alligator).
It's little wonder early dinosaur concepts based themselves off Crocodiles. I didn't actually know crocodiles were closely related to birds until this video, but I've often heard about dinosaurs being the ancestor to birds, or dinosaurs even being birds themselves. I thought crocodiles were quite distinct from dinosaurs despite T-Rex and the crocodile both having very gnarly jaws and tiny forearms.
So in a way, I'm guessing I'm going back a bit to envisioning many dinosaurs perhaps closely resembling a mishmash of both birds and crocodiles in looks. There still a bit of 'crocodile' in the dinosaurs even if they aren't actually the same.
The "family tree" in the video makes It seem a little weird, like dinosaurs and birds are sister clades, but they aren't! Not all dinosaurs are birds, of course, but birds are all theropods, which actually still imposes limitations to them today (like what size can they get while still being able to fly, because to take off they rely on their legs, unlike, say, a pterodactyl). And dinosaurs back then were probably more diverse than mammals today, just within theropods you had non-feathered, feathered, partially feathered dinosaurs, warm-blooded, cold-blooded, partially warm-blooded dinosaurs, dinosaurs with beaks, dinosaurs with plumes, dinosaurs with "bird hips" (ironically, a group that does not include birds), birds with teeth, and long tails, and claws on their wings, there was even a "failed" dinosaur that had a feathered skin membrane! And some "modern birds", like fowl (and, controversially, paleognaths), have already branched off at the time of non-avian dinosaurs, and were carving niches for themselves before the extiction. Also, fun fact, theropods don't have a full wrist mobility, they can't move it downwards and pretty much only can use the wrists for a "hugging" movement, which, in retrospect, seems like an important aspect of their evolution.
Great video, glad you were recommended to me by TH-cam. Subscribed
3am... randoms thoughts brought me here
Same. It's always 3am ain't it..
You could have also mentioned the plant eating crocodiles such as Iharkutosuchus and maybe that some of the surviving crocodiles where the largest cenozoic terrestrial predators.
despite their reptilian appearence they are closet related to birds then other reptiles. this sentence is really weird. as it looks like you are saying that crocodillians are not reptiles because they are closely related to birds. but thats a crooked way to think about it. because birds technically are reptiles. just like primates are mammals
Amazing what they can survive. They are like the tardigrades of tetrapods.
Same with turtles.
5:13 'modern crocodilians', not crocodiles
5:25 again, crocodilians, the point would be incorrect in the case of modern crocodiles. Moreover, depending on what you actually mean by 'modern; the point may be wrong anyway.
"Crocodiles" is sometimes used to refer to all members of the order Crocodilia, with the "true crocodiles" being the subset we usually just call crocodiles. I personally use "crocodilians" to refer to members of Crocodilia because I think it's less confusing/ambiguous, but "crocodiles" is not entirely wrong.
The music in the background is hypnotic
Could you do the evolution of parrots next?
Yes and include their surprisingly close relatives, the falcons, please.
@@danielwalker6653 and also the passerine songbirds too
An amazing video! However i noticed one mistake that you made about Sarcosuchus. It is not from the Dryosauridae family but the Pholidosauridae family. Other than that, good job! :3
I dated this girl who’s parents were super religious & they were part of this Christian sect that didn’t believe in the existence of dinosaurs lol. They sincerely shunned the idea of dinosaurs. They even shunned Harry Potter movies because they practiced witch craft lol. Imagine being THAT brainwashed hahaha 🤣🤦🏽♂️
Yeah... the whole MAGA cult and much more of the GQP is that brainwashed.
Love your channel, keep it up
Yes! My favorite animal! The most Godzilla like we got
My most disliked animal!
No, dinosaurs are closer to Godzilla.
@@Dr.IanPlect I should of put "we got *living now* "
@@shozanhanma2709 Well, going by relatedness and not appearance, it's still dinosaurs; birds!
I love your channel
NEW BANGER INCOMING
I always liked the idea that evolution one day just got it right and then just stayed the same for like 300 million years but I guess there is more to it than that
Could you make about evolution of the racoons pls?
As a Florida native I love our dinosaurs aka swamp doggy’s
Uh, I believe you'll find that the horseshoe crab is the poster child for living fossils. Or the coelacanth. Def not crocs though.
Can't stop evolving to the crocodilofunk
Wonderful! I love this channel.
I love Moth Light Media!
@6:52 first time seeing the scale of deinosuchus this clear
Another good day to be a Moth Light Media fan
2nd video in a week?!??!?! You are too kind
Crocodiles are now my favorite birds
Well done.
There is something really oddly cute about crocodiles and gators walking on lane. Their little legs just look so goofy.
crocodiles are great