Aside from the volume being a little low on some of these, I've got nothing but thanks and praise for these lectures. They are probably intended for your students, but I can't tell you how much this 32-year with a BA (history) who works in contracting (home remodel) has learned from these. Lifelong passion for learning, hope I'm not the only one!
Hi Ted, Thanks for the high praise. The volume issue is related to a poorly designed bluetooth device which I could never get configured correctly. In any case if I rerecord a lecture with a better device I will upload the better file. The information about dinosaurs has exploded in the last 20 years and we know so much. Hopefully we can continue at that pace.
Thomas Evans I think that is one thing that is so exciting about these lectures - all the new finds and breakthroughs in studying old (and new) fossils that you share. Like many kids, I was obssessed with dinosaurs and prehistoric life in general.. its absolutely amazing what has changed since then. Also, from watching you and Dr. Benjamin Burger .. I FINALLY understand cladistics and I'm actually BOTHERED by polyphyletic and paraphyletic groupings now. Hah!
Bats are highly adapted to flight, including their bodies. They are limited by the mammalian body plan however, and have not managed to come up with solutions to make them capable of outcompeting birds.
@@thomasevans3387 yes i mean the early flying theropods might have been flying as capable as bats, for example before the big breast bone. It seems often as they are regarded as non flyers due to lack of muscles etc. But just a few flaps more than competitors would perhaps make a good advantage. Or flapping a bit higher when matedancing like cranes: "Look at that guy!" Just some guesses.
What is really important to me also is the difference between pterosaurs and birds. Breathing, metabolism, flight adaptability, and food types. Or the main reason so many different types of birds made it through the extinction event. My best guess would be the very superior breathing apparatus in birds over say mammals. Banded geese can produce enough oxygen to muscles to fly at 30,000 ft while we are very debilitated at 20,000 ft. But we made it and pterosaurs did not. Was that primarily because of burrowing behavior?
The birds that made it through were probably moderate in size, but the breathing, shared by all archosaurs, is certainly a keen adaptation that makes them well adapted to flight. The reason for pterosaurs going extinct and birds not is not well known. I think the current best guess is that pterosaurs by the end of the Cretaceous were quite large, and this was unlikely to be a size that made it through the event. Pterosaurs may have been forced into these sizes because they are competitively superior to birds at large flight sizes, but it is unclear if competition was real between these groups. Pterosaur fossils are rare and limited, so our understanding of these animals is limited.
Just a personal opinion on how birds developed flight it would seem that since flight has evolved four different times at least that the same mechanism that resulted in insects producing flight resulted in pterosaurs developing flight which resulted in birds developing flight and in the last instance that of mammals producing flight in bats.
the arkies that I saw back then actually thrived not in deep forests by climbing trees to jump down from but in sloped hilly areas and areas almost clifflike with almost constant available wind such as coastal and beach areas. They could glide quite easily and drop down quickly on small prey and also escape by gliding. Also they often would hang in the air and even scan back and forth or even glide backwards just like seagulls do today but I never saw them flying around in still air like modern birds. I used to hike into the deeper lush forests with tall trees but I rarely saw them there since the air was more dead. That is why they well never find fossils of them in and among dense forest. They would run AND glide just like a roadrunner does. A roadrunner will glide down slopes for hundreds of feet without a single flap. anyway just my experience with them but the drawings always picture them climbing trees and jumping down eventually to learn to fly. the opposite of what I saw.
Aside from the volume being a little low on some of these, I've got nothing but thanks and praise for these lectures. They are probably intended for your students, but I can't tell you how much this 32-year with a BA (history) who works in contracting (home remodel) has learned from these. Lifelong passion for learning, hope I'm not the only one!
Hi Ted, Thanks for the high praise. The volume issue is related to a poorly designed bluetooth device which I could never get configured correctly. In any case if I rerecord a lecture with a better device I will upload the better file. The information about dinosaurs has exploded in the last 20 years and we know so much. Hopefully we can continue at that pace.
Thomas Evans I think that is one thing that is so exciting about these lectures - all the new finds and breakthroughs in studying old (and new) fossils that you share. Like many kids, I was obssessed with dinosaurs and prehistoric life in general.. its absolutely amazing what has changed since then.
Also, from watching you and Dr. Benjamin Burger .. I FINALLY understand cladistics and I'm actually BOTHERED by polyphyletic and paraphyletic groupings now. Hah!
You could also manually boost the volume in a video editor and re-upload it.
THAT TAKES TIME, YE BITCH
Lol we would probably get along great
But bats fly and do not seem to have as much of these adaptions to the body skeleton. But they maybe fly only shorter distances?
Bats are highly adapted to flight, including their bodies. They are limited by the mammalian body plan however, and have not managed to come up with solutions to make them capable of outcompeting birds.
@@thomasevans3387 yes i mean the early flying theropods might have been flying as capable as bats, for example before the big breast bone. It seems often as they are regarded as non flyers due to lack of muscles etc. But just a few flaps more than competitors would perhaps make a good advantage. Or flapping a bit higher when matedancing like cranes: "Look at that guy!"
Just some guesses.
What is really important to me also is the difference between pterosaurs and birds. Breathing, metabolism, flight adaptability, and food types. Or the main reason so many different types of birds made it through the extinction event. My best guess would be the very superior breathing apparatus in birds over say mammals. Banded geese can produce enough oxygen to muscles to fly at 30,000 ft while we are very debilitated at 20,000 ft. But we made it and pterosaurs did not. Was that primarily because of burrowing behavior?
The birds that made it through were probably moderate in size, but the breathing, shared by all archosaurs, is certainly a keen adaptation that makes them well adapted to flight. The reason for pterosaurs going extinct and birds not is not well known. I think the current best guess is that pterosaurs by the end of the Cretaceous were quite large, and this was unlikely to be a size that made it through the event. Pterosaurs may have been forced into these sizes because they are competitively superior to birds at large flight sizes, but it is unclear if competition was real between these groups. Pterosaur fossils are rare and limited, so our understanding of these animals is limited.
Yes! The penguins tarsometatarus is waaayy less fused together compared to most birds!
Just a personal opinion on how birds developed flight it would seem that since flight has evolved four different times at least that the same mechanism that resulted in insects producing flight resulted in pterosaurs developing flight which resulted in birds developing flight and in the last instance that of mammals producing flight in bats.
the arkies that I saw back then actually thrived not in deep forests by climbing trees to jump down from but in sloped hilly areas and areas almost clifflike with almost constant available wind such as coastal and beach areas. They could glide quite easily and drop down quickly on small prey and also escape by gliding. Also they often would hang in the air and even scan back and forth or even glide backwards just like seagulls do today but I never saw them flying around in still air like modern birds.
I used to hike into the deeper lush forests with tall trees but I rarely saw them there since the air was more dead. That is why they well never find fossils of them in and among dense forest.
They would run AND glide just like a roadrunner does. A roadrunner will glide down slopes for hundreds of feet without a single flap. anyway just my experience with them but the drawings always picture them climbing trees and jumping down eventually to learn to fly. the opposite of what I saw.
Ravens may be the most intelligent non-human animal on earth and they are avians.