The Four-Winged Dinosaur (2008) | Full Documentary | NOVA
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- Опубликовано: 5 фев 2025
- Surprising fossils from northeastern China spur a debate over how birds evolved.
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As an educator, I completely appreciate the fact that PBS is actually making these documentaries available in their entirety. Thank you.
I suggest marathoning some of PBS Eons video to learn about some relatively new paleontological discoveries. PBS has some great yt channels in general, whether they be about science, history, mythology, or society.
@bina nocht Essential to understanding
Then can you say why English language is so dismal that educated persons do not understand difference between to function and to work?
Yep that's socialism for ya right there 😂 Terrible
@@thehighwayman78 Lol. Agreed. Completely horrid.
This is without a doubt one of the best documentaries concerning dinosaurs or flight that I've ever seen.
Nearly midnight and I've just discovered this video. I wish I could wake my kids as well as my dad 😪 but now I have to wait till morning to share. Absolutely amazing 👏
Awesome documentary. Totally fascinating.
This is fascinating and so well presented. All options are considered. You get to see how scientists and biologists and fossil hunters work together to uncover evolutionary changes in the history of flight!
Sorry. But that is just not how documentaries work. Nor is it an accurate 'real world' view of how science works - brain-storming sessions and rock-star epiphanies are rare events. Filmmakers and scientists are essentially egoists just like anyone else... perhaps by necessity. Confirmation bias runs rampant in both fields... but in a Jungian sense, that might also be a good thing. 🙃
If I've offended you, then that simply reinforces my point.
Amazinxing doc... All the air footage...
"It has thrown our understanding into a new and productive chaos" - that reminds me of Earl C Kelley's teaching statement :
“We have not succeeded in answering all our problems. The answers we have found only serve to raise a whole set of new questions. In some ways we feel we are as confused as ever, but we believe we are confused on a higher level and about more important things.”
― Earl C. Kelley
It's amazing how much we've learnt about Microraptor in the past 20 years since this documentary aired. Including its place in the dinosaur family tree. It indeed might be a potential ancestor to flightless dromaeosaurs like Velociraptor & Deinonychus. Alan Grant was on the money when he thought raptors could've flown. Then there's the dragon-like Yi Qi! I suggest watching some of PBS Eons' videos to learn more.
Truly dinosaurs evolved with sharp BEAK and stronger hind legs, while fore (hands) legs were getting smaller and weaker. Only when they found the use of feather hands to keep warm and the feather make their fore arms better and stronger in MOTION asisted, whether in climbing trees or keep balancing and finally escaping into gliding and true flight.
There’s one in every comment section.
All those brilliant minds and it took them that long to think maybe it held its legs straight back. That's what all birds do in flight, as you can see at 48:18
To be fair, they're paleontologists, not ornithologists or aeronautical engineers.
The fact that they used puppets instead of CGI is so cool ❤
Magnificent Documentary! 💜
I appreciate the work and skill of modern archeologists, but we are just scraping the surface of what life was truely like there would be thousands if not millions of unknown species we humans will never truely know the entire truth of ancient life. But the men on this team are still finding species and like I said I appreciate them. Great Documentary Thank You.
I think that the artist rendering based on many fossil specimens is the better of the two. It lessens the error of self interpretation with several samples. Why would you make a model out of crushed bones from a single specimen? It's just crazy. 😊
As a Dr I wholly appreciate the PBS for making these documentaries and so does the general public , do you get it!
The long featherless tail on both sides environmentally pressured the hind legs for feathers as support ; however the shortening of the tail with guiding feathers made it useless to have feathers on the hind limbs .
Well presented; fascinating, and there aremany possibilities that in time will perhaps provide a plausible conclusion to the mystery.Thanks for an enjoyable and thought provoking video.
Nice documentary, fully explained, exploring all ideas.
Highly educative.
Many likes!
It's interesting that they all assume the feathers on the legs had to of been used as secondary set of wings. They could have been used more like a modern birds tail in flight, like the webbing between bats legs only with feathers.
NOT DYING & landing safely is more important than gliding or flying, Living things have the opportunity to try & try again.
I’ve seen ducklings do the climbing thing it’s quite amazing
Thanks for sharing this excellent video 🙏🏻
Thanks for posting.
Absolutely LOVED the way that the reconstructed models running around were lovingly hand made and not the dreaded one dimensional CGI! But...! Why did no-one ever actually explain WHY couldn't dinosaurs have run with feathers on their feet? Bantams do! People kept stating things like that without ever being asked to explain properly themselves.
8:13 Why did the dinosaur birds all look like stuffed animals? I love the cute teeth and crazed expression of 8:22
Mindblowing. Thank You for the great content. .
It seems a bit strange to argue that flight could only evolve in one of two ways. Surely the very same animal could use both techniques to aid its survival long enough to pass on its genes?
Neumans argument for arboreal flight may have happened but the reaching out to grab prey with front arms could easily evolve to the functional mechanics of flapping.
Some larger birds hold their legs in a 45 degree angle when they land, it's to stabilize the descent 😁
I love this video. Thanks.
..the Mille Fleur / Booted bantam poultry have feathers on their legs and feets..
Fascinating, but did I miss any discussion of "opposite birds" (Enantiornithes)? Where do they fit in?
This was an excellent demonstration of how rigorous scientific research advances our knowledge of the natural world. 10/10.
Brilliant documentary ❤
12:24 Correction: You knew that back in the sixties already. Long before Jurrasic Park was made. And they ignored it and did showed us incorrect dinosaurs, knowing full well they were incorrect.
It was also an action film not a science documentary, featherless reptiles looked more intimidating than big chickens.
While JP got things incorrect - there kinda is in-universe explanation for it too. The dino dna they used was not complete so they mixed stuff like frogs and lizard dna with it to make it more complete. This not only explains asexual reproduction we see in the movies but also would explain the lack of feathers.
information is great. presentation is more of a question. overall quite good - i am just a consumer of documentaries, not an expert.
Possibly his first field trip going by how his new his hammer is ,lol
This was fun.. need more like this one.
Extrêmement intéressant ! / Extremely interesting. Thanks / Merci !
Pekin chickens have feathers on their feet.
I keep thinking of that amazing TED talk - where’s all the baby dinosaurs!
If you have a 2D model and know the original object was in 3D. If you apply the Golden Ratio you should be able to recreate a 3D model of the same object, as you know it must originally be a 3D animal
My ancestors, the synapsids, were friend with many reptiles.
Denying birds aren't a type of dinosaur is like saying Bats aren't mammals
Or flying squirrels. The argument "arboreal means it can't have been dinosaur" really doesn't make sense to me.
to be honest bat dont look mammals. if u ask tribes they say it related to bird because of its wing.
Birds are certainly descended from dinosaurs. This surely must mean not all dinosaurs were killed off by that infamous meteor strike. Some still existed to evolve into the creatures alive today that are related them.
"Birds are certainly descended from dinosaurs. This surely must mean not all dinosaurs were killed off by that infamous meteor strike. Some still existed to evolve into the creatures alive today that are related them."
1 point that you'll realise renders this comment as ignorant and based upon being unaware of the following;
- Birds evolved before, and coexisted with _other_ dinosaurs millions of years before the K-T event (K-T; Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction, the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs).
Some other, minor points;
- we (science) doesn't know or claim anything with certainty. That birds evolved from dinosaurs is very solidly evidenced, but not certain.
- note I stated _other_ dinosaurs above; birds are not just dinosaur descendants, they _are_ dinosaurs
- asteroid, not a meteor
@@Dr.IanPlect I am fully aware that dinosaur species gained feathers & could fly/glide. Also other much larger dinosaur species could fly. However, as far as we & science knows so far, these species were dinosaurs, considered reptiles. We do not class birds today as reptiles because they're not. My point was that dinosaurs have evolved into birds over millions of years. For that to happen the creatures they descended from could not have all been killed off in a great calamity that science states happened.
@@Paul-hl8yg "I am fully aware that dinosaur species gained feathers & could fly/glide. Also other much larger dinosaur species could fly. However, as far as we & science knows so far, these species were dinosaurs, considered reptiles. We do not class birds today as reptiles because they're not. My point was that dinosaurs have evolved into birds over millions of years. For that to happen the creatures they descended from could not have all been killed off in a great calamity that science states happened."
- that comment completely ignores my information and adds even more nonsense, whilst showing you to be a stubborn ass!
Try changing your attitude and learn from someone in the profession; I'm a PhD zoologist!
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"I am fully aware that dinosaur species gained feathers & could fly/glide. Also other much larger dinosaur species could fly."
- it's clear you do not refer to avian dinosaurs (birds) here as you don't accept they are dinosaurs. So, NO, NO dinosaurs (other than birds, that you don't accept are dinosaurs) could fly!
"However, as far as we & science knows so far, these species were dinosaurs, considered reptiles." We do not class birds today as reptiles because they're not."
- yeah, this confirms you really are stating other dinosaurs could fly; NAME THEM! And don't think of pterosaurs either; they are NOT dinosaurs. NAME THESE FLYING dinosaurs!
- birds ARE reptiles, but go ahead, why are they NOT?
"My point was that dinosaurs have evolved into birds over millions of years. For that to happen the creatures they descended from could not have all been killed off in a great calamity that science states happened."
- I told you already and you ignored it; READ AGAIN
*Birds evolved before, and coexisted with other dinosaurs millions of years before the K-T event (K-T; Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction, the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs).*
Or putting it another way; birds had already evolved from dinosaurs millions of years BEFORE the asteroid that killed all non-avian dinosaurs. There was therefore NOT a requirement for some dinosaurs to have survived the asteroid to bring birds about; it ALREADY happened millions of years prior!
@@Dr.IanPlect I have not seen or heard of birds living alongside dinosaurs? Could you please give details on that? I have not heard of any fossil remains of feathered dinosaurs being classed as birds, still only classed as dinosaurs?
@@Paul-hl8yg I'll address these questions (that second one states something I did NOT state!) and anything else you bring up from the responses you have yet to give from what I already picked out from your commentary;
"I am fully aware that dinosaur species gained feathers & could fly/glide. Also other much larger dinosaur species could fly."
- NAME THEM
"We do not class birds today as reptiles because they're not."
- why are they NOT?
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You see, this is how 'conversation' works, both sides fully addressing each other's points...
Larry Martin's theory has major flaws IMO, it assumes evolution must always take the path of least resistance. It also completely disregards the possibility of divergent evolution of flight. I don't seen an issue with dinosaurs developing flight from a running start, and I don't see issues with other dinosaurs being able to climb trees and dive start, but one thing I can say is being able to fly from a running start is way more versatile than dive-flyers and evolution has shown that, most birds today use running starts, which kind of points to the fact that dive starters were less successful and died out.
I would have liked to see the sprawling model put into the wind tunnel as well.
I was wondering that too
How did they survive the metor strike
Nothing survived at the place where the meteor hit. The rest of the planet saw most animals dying because of all the ash and water in the atmosphere - it shaded the sun, and most plants couldn't survive without sun. But there were some small mushrooms and lichens. So, very small animals that fed on mushrooms and lichens survived... and small animals that fed on those small animals. Later, gradually, those small animals got bigger and evolved into other animals.
The splayed nature of the microraptor bones that were squished under tons of ash? If you take a chicken bone and soak it in vinegar for a while, you can tie that bone in a knot. Volcanic ash is notorious for being acidic. Think about it. 27:10
awesome scientists.
I'm going with - Microraptor IS a Dinosaur and IS effectively the ancestor of birds. I think it was probably an efficient arboreal glider and that, as the advantages of powered flight put evolutionary pressure on its descendants to strengthen and specialise their forelimbs, so the hindlimbs' requirements changed from being flight focussed to being more as we see in modern birds. The shortening and fanning out of the tail may have played a part in this although it looks as if this came later as Archaeopteryx still has a long tail but has already moved to a two-wing configuration. As for the terrestrial hypothesis - imagine that you are an Archaeopteryx chick running up a branch to escape a predator - you are not going to think to yourself "I'd better not use my wings because this will lead to inherited behaviour that will confuse future palaeontologists" - you will use everything available to you to get out of the predator's reach as quickly as possible.
This program did look rather dated - I expect all this modelling could now be done in software based directly on merged scans of all the specimens if the technology is available in China - I am off to wikipedia now to see if my predictions came true :-)
It looks like the feathers on the legs fill the same role as tail feathers on modern birds, while the arms look very similar. It's not much of a stretch for the legs to lose their role with developing tail feathers on a shorter tail.
35:22 - this is NOT how an aeroplane or a wing works!
A wing works by deflecting downwards a mass of air the same mass as the plane. The power to do this is generated by engines pushing the plane forwards.
Here's the golden rule: if you ever see a video, which claims to inform you how a wing generates lift - it's wrong.
The explanation provided at 35:22 is correct.
Some breeds of chickens have feathers on their feet.
Some chickens have feathered legs and feet so does the snowy owl
They are talking about flight feathers and not ones for insulation.
mindblowing of our Lord's creation!!!!!!
Why wouldn't dinosaurs be able to climb trees? Of course dinosaurs could climb trees. Amphibians climb trees. Reptiles climb trees. Mammals climb trees. I can't think of any birds that climb trees, but there probably are some and/or have been some. The only reason fish don't climb trees is because they need water to live, and I bet there's a species of lungfish somewhere that climbs trees (or used to).
A few fishes _do_ climb trees. And birds and dinosaurs _are_ reptiles.
There's no reason to think that flight didn't evolve in different ways. After all, flight has evolved AT LEAST four times (insects, pterosaurs, birds, and bats) and possibly more.
When we think of bats as rats and mice with wings, why not ditto evolution o f flight from little, ground running, dinosaurs
First and foremost historical truths are all interpretations of what is seen, or left to be seen, they do not have all of the evidence and therefore are making educated guesses. Secondly there could be two different origins of birds, perhaps both are right, or neither. For instance, hedgehogs and porcipinre quills. Thirdly the "flattened" modle can not be accurate as they admitted it has be squished under great pressure where surely anatomical structures are deformed or lost completely. Why are people so sure they are right, they know best when they are clearly working on educated guesses at best.
I didn't know dinosaurs were so small and looked like sesame street characters.
Yeah, dinosaurs came in all sizes, including very small
Not a mystery, freak'n obvious.
Predators that climb trees and jump, the ones that could jump further without injury win.
Raptors claws are for climbing, not just killing.
Truthfully how long would it take to make a fossil if you wanted Im guessing weather and location would have to be complimentary
I find the comment that dinosaurs could not climb trees an absurd assumption. I have seen foxes climb trees, yet they are a ground mammal animal. Why could not small dinosaurs have climbed trees during their 160 million year existence? Humans have only been around 4 million years, look how far we have evolved in such a very short period of time.
Because the dude saying that had a chip on his shoulder - he's been at it for 30 years or so trying to prove that it weren't dinosaurs, so he's far too emotionally invested to take a step back and assess his own reasoning.
Were dinasours warm or cold-blooded?
we dont know its still investigated, but lots of scientists think they were probably mesotherms.
Ground up, trees down.... Why not both?
If you consider birds as a monophyletic group, i.e. all birds originate from one ancestor, then it's more likely to be one or the other. Even if birds eventually evolved both functions, one of them should precede the other, i.e. flapping to help with achieving steep inclines first, which then led to gliding/flying, or parachuting/flapping flight first, which led to wing assisted incline running in flightless juveniles.
@@geofflau4215 I dont think any of the main animal groups stem down from single animals.... most, if not all developed as a range of animals evolving together alongside each other in similar circumstances. It wasnt just one animal that developed feathers, its was a broad range which were all adapting to the same colder conditions.
Its why almost all Northern animals are white. Its not that they all evolved from a single white animal. They all co evolve for whiteness.
Back to birds, theres no reason why both activities, running fast & learning to climb couldnt have been done by different groups of lizards, who both responded to cooling climate by producing feathers from their scales.
@@LucVNO I think you might be conflating phenotypic convergence with phylogeny though. Certainly animals that live in monocolour environments would likely converge upon that trait simply out of survival - anything that didn't develop the mutation necessary for a white exterior would promptly be consumed in a landscape of snow - but that's unrelated to actual classes of animals evolving.
Genetic evidence tells us that all extant birds (avialae) evolved from a single common ancestor nested within the maniraptoran dinosaurs. Certainly feathers came long before that, and certainly many dinosaurs had feathers, and possibly at least several of them also gave rise to bird-like descendants that even could have flown, but the K-T event left only the birds we see surviving today.
in the case of how the extant birds learned to fly - well, the truth is, it might be improbable that we'd figure out anytime soon. It's certainly correct that flight may have evolved from either the "ground-up" or "trees-down" theory, but the documentary ironically fails to recognize is that microraptor was not a bird, and therefore how it developed may have absolutely no bearing on how the common ancestors of extant birds developed flight.
Brahma chickens have feathers on their feet, still exist today
They are talking about feathers on the legs for flight, not insulation
Feet should straighten up behind the raptor while the leg feathers splays open. These feathers are attached incorrectly. The leg feathers are used to maneuver itself noting the tail feathers doesn't do this.
22:28 Computer modeling?
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!
Apart from the brilliant work and methodical meticulous research executed by these scientists, superbly showcased by NOVA/PBS, it highlights the the incredible roadblock to progress and understanding international conflicts yield;
featured here are great minds from the United States and China collaborating to solve a fascinating paleontological mystery.
The same is true for aerospace research and design, and other fields of engineering, indeed with all the sciences including medicine. With the great minds of the West, China, Russia and those from all other areas of the world, together working as a team we can achieve so much incredible good.
Why must we insist on competing and arrogantly/ignorantly arguing, or simply not having enough respect for one another, leading to conflict and the notion of controlling or worse trying to blow one another up!?
The resulting destruction only pollutes our beautiful planet more than we already have, wasting tremendous amounts of money that would have been better invested elsewhere. Ultimately at the end of it all absolutely NO ONE WINS!
All that is achieved is just a great deal of heartache and misery amongst unnecessary bloodshed. Will we ever evolve from our Chimpanzee/Ape mentality?
Moving forward together as a respectful collaborative international community presents such unlimited potential for glorious possibilities, the leaders of these conflicting nations do not represent the voices and attitudes of their respective citizens, they only perniciously manipulate them with their own vile malignant agendas.
Well, how did bats or pterosaurs evolved flight? Maybe that would be a clue. There are gliding lizards but no running until they get to fly lizards. I also think it's easier to evolve a stronger flight muscle by practicing it...maybe after hundreds of years of gliding, than trying to flap your arm feathers until you evolve to be able to fly from the ground.
i think the feathers the Raptor uses are for Gliding and Display for Mating
that's for flightless dino like t-rex
They're playing with plastic models from fossils that have distortions. This is speculation. We need more fossils that clearly lay out the bird lineage.
I realize this is a doc so it's not going to go into every detail and it's probably creatively edited as well...but just on the basis of this video Nueman's argument seems tenuous.
1) Dinosaurs couldn't climb trees...says who?
2) More importantly, he seems to be basing the idea that Microraptor is not a dinosaur from a single character: the sprawling hip. I'm no anatomist but i'm pretty sure Microraptor has a lot of characters that show it to be nested deeply within Dinosauria. Neuman seems to be arguing that it branched off at the Archosaur level and...i guess just convergently evolved every single other character common to maniraptoran dinosaurs?
Seems unlikely.
Giddy up this is amazing.
Well yes birds flap when they go up a steep incline, so maybe microraptor did the same but to a smaller degree due to not having powered flight due to being a glider, however I doubt microraptor as a species is the direct ancestor of all birds but very closely related. And the species that did evolve into modern birds used the flapping more and more when gliding but its just my opinion.
Ive seen chickens with feathers on their feet not long one but still feathers
4 wings?! How?!
31:55 If a bone plugs into a socket it can't move. And bones don't plug into sockets. They are connected to sockets by muscles and joints.
What I don't understand is why they even were trying to see if the legs could slay outwards? How many birds fly with their legs splayed outwards? And now the claw makes more sense that they were used for gripping onto trees to climb
They needed to scientifically disprove the hypothesis that more wings made for more flying power (like in dragonflies). Remember, they aren't sure microraptor was a direct ancestor of birds. There are many blind alleys in evolution and they wanted to find out if this wasn't one of them. The fossils are too old to test for DNA and compare it with today's birds.
they didnt get it wrong, the 1st evidence of feathered dinosaurs came after the release of JP1, which is why in JP2 they have some proto-feathers on their heads, then we have the need for visual continuance in JP's 3-5 and finally a fully feathered pyrriraptor in dominion.
47:44 So here's me thinking: Well yes. That's kind of how I imagined it might work. It's such a kind of dumb theory anyone could come up with... Why is Xu the only one among you who even came up with it and wanted to try it???
Aren't there dinosaurs with skin wings on just their legs like Sharovipteryx? It seems to me (with my uneducated opinion) that wings on the legs is for gliding. But maybe the wings on the arms could make the wings have 2 purposes? Maybe it also flew like a bird?🤷♀️
38. 38... Check !!!
Haha, in there- there was zero comments allowed !!!!
With millions of insect species I wouldn’t call this the age of dinosaurs nor mammals
Well, as they say, Ontology recapitulates Phylogeny , right ??
40 years ago, no one seriously thought that dinosaurs were slow. Dim-witted, perhaps (stegosaurus had to have two brains, after all), but speed is a result of form.
No one thought that you could just casually sashay away from a tyrannosaurus rex.
And birds are not dinosaurs. They don't look like dinosaurs, and if birds are dinosaurs, then I'm a fish (and, at that point, words just lose all meaning).
A dinosaur with feathers is just that: a dinosaur with feathers. I'll let you debate if that qualifies as a reptile, but it's obviously not a bird.
I wish we had some killer Dinos around. Like Raptors and T-Rex on every corner and Pterosaur in full force and all of them very hungry. Maybe that would unite us. Maybe!
A dinosaur with feathers was it more for insulation, than flight.
they had feathers, and flapped their small wings while climbing up trees to escape from predators... then one day... it floated... who knows how long that took. you can see the evidence in chickens, which don't fly, and eagles; which are the best fliers... the fossil could be from a lineage that died out because it has long feathers getting in the way of climbing and that long tail too ... and think about it.. if they use their legs less, their legs should shrink and and arms expand from flapping all the time and the better flapping, the faster you get up the tree and surviving to breed... ps eagles have feathers on their legs :)
If one animal climbed trees and launched from there means they all did. Does that necessarily follow?
@bina nocht You're telling me that it happened in one generation
The biggest mistake they make is in the assumption that this creature achieves static flight. The creature would fly using continuously shifting postures and flapping of wings with micro adjustments according to what it wants to do. Like birds and every other known flying animal.
has become unwatchable because of too many adverts
Perhaps it was something similar to a reptile version of the flying squirl. A creature that glided using all its limbs.
I gather it was more a predator glider and may not have flown at all. Living mostly in the huge prehistoric trees and rain forests of old. feathers on the feet would perhaps help it break a stop when landing and place its feet more precisly. a feat geatly in need high up.
What fabulous fossil records from China.
well that's how bird fly right , i mean when they jump of the tree , they put their leg straight behind and when they gonna land on another tree they push their leg forward . and just like the ancestor , bird could be branched out from 3 different dinosaur , tree dinosaur ,water dinosaur and land dinosaur . since because we did has 3 kind of bird , the land flightless and the run leap flight bird , the tree jumping flighter , and the swimming bird (penguin,duck and any other water dweller bird) who has flipper than a wing . and then we have a platypus (what the heck is this thing ??) . well our taxonomy is based on assumption for the most , so we not really really sure where they come from . either bird is evolved/adapted from dinosaur or , they are indeed their own species of dinosaur . we also have all those pterosaur ,and all those flying mammals ... but we all know for sure that bird and reptile meat is has similar taste . like how some insect and crustacean did .
Though interesting. There is a lot of speculation and assumptions being used.
Micro Raptor is a tiny Avian Dinosaur that might have inspired the mythical creature like Dragon if we carefully look at its fossil.
A lot of dinosaurs looked like dragons, didn't have to be microraptor specifically.
if not dinos then where is the archeological record of their ancestors?
1st thing come to my mind: squirrel