You might have heard that all
dinosaurs were wiped out
65 million years ago
when a 15 km (9 miles)
wide asteroid crashed into Earth
and caused a mass extinction event.
But that is entirely false.
One species of dinosaur
theropods managed to survive.
They had feathers and hollow bones,
and most of them could fly.
Meaning they could rise above the blast
and survive the aftermath.
And now many scientists believe that
these theropod
dinosaurs managed to evolve into birds.
So technically, dinosaurs
are still alive and with us today.
But that's not the only thing
you were lied to about dinosaurs.
From nonexistent species
to T-Rex’s eyesight.
There are many myths and misconceptions
about the Mesozoic era.
One of the craziest is that dinosaurs
were all green scary monsters.
In fact,
many of them likely had feathers.
Theropods would have had feathers
for a variety of reasons,
from giving them warmth
to helping
some aviation based dinosaurs to fly.
And that's not all.
Dinosaurs were a variety of colors.
Yeah,
some fossils have preserved pigments,
showing that not all dinosaurs
were brown, black or green.
They may have had many vibrant colors.
Some of them may even have
had specific camouflage,
depending on their environment.
And they weren't
all scaly and slimy either.
Different dino species
would have different
textures to their skin.
I want to know if any
of them were fluffy.
Now, when you think of dinosaurs,
you probably think
that they were all massive.
The T-Rex had a length of 12m (40ft),
and the long necked
brachiosaurus was up to 13m (42ft) tall.
But that wasn't the case
for all dinosaurs.
Contrary to popular belief,
not all dinosaurs were giants.
In fact, many of them were pretty small.
Some were even the size of birds
that we have today.
Look at that one.
One small dinosaur was the micro raptor.
This little guy
was about the size of a crow.
He even had
wings and feathers,
making him look like a bird.
Dinosaurs are typically portrayed
as slow moving, cold
blooded reptiles,
but this isn't totally accurate.
Scientists have recently discovered
that dinosaurs weren't
all cold blooded like we thought.
But that doesn't mean
that they were all warm blooded.
It's a bit more complicated.
Dinosaurs may have had a
metabolic system known as mesothermic.
This means they were somewhere
between cold and warm blooded.
Being mesothermic allows animals
to generate some internal heat,
just not as much as a warm
blooded animal would.
Dinosaurs with feathers
may have been warm blooded.
Feathers usually suggest warm blooded.
Now, of course,
there were thousands
of species of dinosaurs,
so sure,
many of them may have been cold blooded,
but there were also warm blooded
and mesothermic dinosaurs.
The brontosaurus
is one of the most
iconic dinosaurs ever,
with its long neck and tail.
It's probably one of the first dinosaurs
you think of.
But did you know that these creatures
almost didn't exist?
Yeah.
In the 19th century,
the brontosaurus
was accidentally classified
as the Apatosaurus.
A species with similar traits.
It wasn't until 2015
after years of research,
that the brontosaurus
was reclassified as its own dinosaur.
Kind of like how Pluto comes
and goes as a planet.
The dinosaur community
seems to have some sort of trouble
making up their mind on the validity
of the name Brontosaurus.
Movies like Jurassic Park
often show
that Tyrannosaurus Rex
as one of the most deadly predators,
destroying everything in its path.
The only catch?
They can only see prey if it moves.
Yeah, that's also completely false.
To make the T-Rex even more terrifying.
They had incredible vision
and were easily able to see prey
that stood still.
Since the T-Rex’s eyes were positioned
forward on its head.
It had binocular vision.
It could easily judge distances
and see objects in three dimensions,
similar to how humans see.
Research suggests
that the T-Rex might
have had better eyesight
than modern day birds
because it had such large optic nerves.
It's easy to forget, but dinosaurs
didn't all live simultaneously.
The Mesozoic Era,
also known as the Age of Dinosaurs,
spanned over 180 million years.
There were three distinct periods
Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous.
And within these three periods,
different species were unique
to the specific era.
Within 180 million years,
some dinosaurs evolved into new forms and
some species went extinct.
Some of the most iconic dinosaurs,
like the Stegosaurus and T-Rex,
never actually co-existed.
They lived in entirely
different time
periods, tens of millions of years apart.
Also, the T-Rex is often shown
as a Godzilla like creature
that can stand upright.
But how accurate is this?
Well, turns out it's
a total misconception
based on early artist's renderings.
Paleontologists have since found
that the T-Rex
had a more horizontal posture.
Its tail was held up off
the ground
and its body was balanced over the hips.
The upright stance of the T-Rex
that we typically see
is fun for Hollywood,
but it would be unstable
and impractical
for the dinosaur to move around freely.
When fossils are dug up, the shrink wrap
method is often used to portray
how the dinosaurs looked.
This is where the skin and features
are drawn tightly against the skeleton.
The technique has led to some iconic
dinosaur portrayals,
but is incredibly inaccurate
when it comes to how these dinosaurs
actually looked.
The problem
is that it doesn't account
for any muscles fat
or any other soft tissues
that the dinosaur had.
Luckily,
this method is considered outdated.
Paleontologists
now account for the muscles
in the fat that the dinosaurs
were likely packing on.
They make comparisons with modern animals
to find
where muscle would typically
be attached to the bone.
This has led to a more
realistic appearance for the dinosaurs.
Paleontologists have identified over
1,000 different species of dinosaurs,
but there are tons more left to discover.
Literally.
The numbers vary,
but some research suggests
we've only
found about 30% of dinosaur species
and some we may never find due to gaps
in the fossil record.
Depending on where a species lived,
they may have never been fossilized
due to their environment,
but many more will be discovered.
On average, paleontologists discover
about 50 new dinosaur species every year.
Dinosaurs probably didn't
sound anything like this.
In fact,
we really have no idea
what they sounded like.
Fossilization rarely preserves
the soft tissues
like vocal cords,
and that makes it challenging
for paleontologists
to determine the exact
sounds dinosaurs made.
But it's unlikely
they made these massive roars.
Scientists can make an educated
guess that dinos sounded
closer to birds and crocodiles,
since they're the closest
living relatives of dinosaurs.
Researchers have created models
based on fossilized skulls.
The models suggest
that the dinosaurs
may have made low frequency
rumbles or birdlike calls.
Regardless of what
they sounded like exactly,
the scientific community agrees
that they didn't sound like this.
So is it possible that one
day we'll be able to clone
dinosaur DNA
and build our very own Jurassic Park?
Well, as cool
as that may be
it's never going to happen.
Since DNA degrades over time,
the chance of finding intact dino DNA is
basically zero.
And even if some were found,
extracting the DNA
without any contamination
or deterioration
would be incredibly difficult.
Now, what if the DNA was preserved
in amber similar to the movie?
Well, that's also highly unlikely,
since DNA can't survive
for tens of millions of years
inside of Amber.
You know, the Mesozoic period
was an incredible time in Earth's history
and one that we're learning
more about every day.
But what happened immediately
after this period ended?
You know, when the
dinosaurs went extinct?
Well,
that's a story for another,
WHAT IF.