Convergent Evolution | Dolphins and Ichthyosaurs 

I never thought a channel so serious about animal history would say, “thick with three c’s” in such a serious tone

Icthyosaur are underrated and underrepresented in popular media imo. Love my lizardolphins

Early Jurassic Ichthyosaurs are really something. They may no have the size or diversity of their Triassic forerunners, but have truly fine-tuned their marine adaptations and became masters of the ocean. Also Temnodontosaurus are truly underrated super predators, and while other fan favorites often turn out to be overblown, these things just get bigger and more terrifying.

Regional Forms before Pokémon made it cool

Dolphin: what's are you? Icthyosaurus : I'm you but cooler. *also this video is good.*

Hello everybody, I hope you all are doing well. At long last the convergent evolution video is complete. This project is a bit shorter than usual but nonetheless I hope you all enjoy the video! Also I'll be updating you guys on the patreon page I've been working on for the channel. A lot of planning has gone into this so I'm able to give back to y'all for your support!

I've loved Icthyosaurs since I first saw WWD, I'm glad to see them get more attention, and it is crazy how little we still know about them or their origins.

This reminds me of a biology textbook my grandpa had when he was in college. There is a section that mentions and briefly explains convergent evolution and there was a triangle with a shark, a dolphin, and a "fish-lizard" which cracks me up when I think of it.

Orcas are another example of countershaded dolphins, although I don't know if they're being counted here as dolphins, but they're technically actually the largest species of dolphin rather than a separate lineage.

The are a few other interesting differences between ichthyosauss and cetaceans. While for cetaceans are very vocal animals, ichthyosaurs have highly ossified ear bones and some of them might even be deaf. They might, however, have other means of detecting vibration in the water. And while whales and dolphins have closed nostrils and have lost their sense of smell, ichthyosaurs do not close their nostrils and have highly developed underwater smell. This, coupled with their huge eyes, makes the swordfish analogy really helpful.

4:25 what's fascinating about having blubber and being warm blooded is that it not changes the notion that reptiles are solely cold blooded, is shows that this body plan was used several times (especially in the evolution of birds and mammals). It also gives insight of the temperature of its environment

Convergent Evolution is so cool because of the fact species millions of years apart can be so similar, history most certainly repeats itself.

Giving live birth is actually the norm for marine reptiles-plesiosaurs and mosasaurs did it as well, as do true sea snakes. It's that sea turtles are unusual in laying eggs.

Fantastic video. This should really be more popular

A wonderful look into one of my favorite oceanic reptiles.

As always a magnificent job jack! Convergent evolution is a topic that is not only intriguing but highly explanatory for bodyplans & behavior traits. Covering it was a wonderful choice! PS: Can't really decide a favorite species for the species in the video however, as a whole my favorites would be: Cetaceans: Beluga Whale Ichthyosauria: Shonisaurus

Never imagined any reptiles having blubber. Guess it's even more necessary when you're cold blooded. 👍

Great video and amazing animation!

Great video! Definitely worth the wait. :)

1:44 Orcas _are_ dolphins. Some types (which may be different species or subspecies) specialize in hunting marine mammals while other types only eat fish. I've seen videos of Pacific white-sided dolphins swimming alongside resident (fish-eating) Orcas as well as videos of Pacific white-sided dolphins stampeding in fear away from transient (marine mammal-hunting) Orcas. The smaller dolphins know the difference.

Excellent video! Ichthyosaurs are very cool

They've recently found some gigantic ichthyosaurs in the UK, i wonder if they were filter feeders

I loved the animation of the video!

This channel makes the best animations

My fav is leedsicthys, there’s always a bigger fish

Just wanted to say I found you on Twitter in the nature/dinosaur community and I absolutely love your videos. It's a calm backdrop to listen to during all of the political unrest.

Thank goodness I wasn't the only one who thought they looked similar. Even as a child when I read dinosaur books, I've always mistaken icthyosaurs for dolphins lmao.

Love these vids!

Very well done video 👍 didn’t know we know babies ichthyosaur were darker than adults, I thought the darker coloration was found in another species that hunt in deeper water

Thank you for making a video on icthyosaurs there are one of me favorite marine reptiles

The ichthyosaurus looks cuter than a normal dolphin

river dolphin skulls and crocodiles are a pretty good example

Basically back then,you wouldn't be made laugh at,for calling a dolphin a fish. Also love the narration vas always,and the animation was great too.

Dr Steven Jay Gould's favorite example of convergent evolution example is between icthyosaurus and dolphins

New channel to binge ❤️

Btw when an ichthyosaurus in some species like ophthalmosaurus reaches adult age they lose all of their teeth

You make such amazing content!

Another great video with well placed jokes; a sequel convergence of two species comparison down the line would also be a potential great idea

Fantastic video sah!!

That was fantastic, Fahim! I wonder if ichthyosaurs somehow survive back then, they'll almost completely lose their hind legs just like whales did... As far as I know, the hind legs of late ichthyosaurs were (far?) more smaller than their early relatives', right?

Can you do a cover on pliosaurs? They do not get highlighted . it is usually mosasaurs that get exposure.

Neat.

Cool video 🙂👍

Excellent

Nice. Can you add subtitles?

I like those cute biggggg eyes.....the animation is sooo cute too...thanks for the infos...love from India.

But did they use echo location as well?

I once heard that convergent evolution is like your teacher saying that you were cheating bc you have the same answers but it's really just bc u took the SAME test

Happy Halloween

My favorite ex is the basking and megamouth sharks

Think we’ll see any other ichthyosaurs get into Prehistoric Kingdom after launch, or just Ichthyosaurus itself?

I wonder if Ichtyosaurs were also as intelligent as modern day dolphins Is there anything known about their brains?

"Convergent Evolution" is my favorite scientific concept. Why? Because it is what drives the biodiversity in all my favorite sci-fi universes. Star Trek and Star Wars both feature bi-pedal creatures with arms and legs. This is of course because those are costumes with humans inside and putting humans inside a costume NOT shaped like a human would be painful for the actor. Directors try not to do that, otherwise they risk being blacklisted by the stuntmen's guild for being difficult to work with. But I enjoy these movies because they allow my mind to wander into the "what if' of space travel. Naturally, I assume that alien life will be as different from us as we are from the octopus. But what if life on other planets in other solar systems in other universes evolved to have a body shape like ours? And what if their brains were located in their heads and therefore of similar size and complexity as ours? Sufficiently enough like ours that communication is possible? Oh what we could learn from them! As long as they aren't bent on conquest, of course. So many actual theorists have said that alien lie sufficiently advanced to discover a way to travel the vast distances necessary to visit our planet will be explorers and not conquistadors. But, of course, there are those who ask what if they became interstellar travelers specifically to plunder other worlds, like the ones depicted in Independence Day or War Of The Worlds? It is these questions to which I set my mind after watching sci-fi movies.

What is up with shastasaurus?

Ichthyosaurs. Basically cetaceans before there were cetaceans.

🔥🔥🔥

Very different senses though. Dolphins have their advanced sonar, while ichthyosaurs relied on their advanced sight.

A spinal segment of the Ichthyosaur was discovered behind my yard in Ely Cambs and the real lock ness monster was discovered in Stretham 7 miles away from Ely

What if one of the large icthyosaurs fought mosasaurus and shastasaurus was the largest icthyosaur at over 20 meters

Bagus

isn't the tail fluke orientation another indicator of where the animal is on the evolutionary tree? I recall reading somewhere that mammals have evolved to be better at flexing their body vertically so the cetaceans and sirenians all evolved horizontal flukes. reptiles on the other hand retained superior side-to-side flexion of their amphibian and fish ancestors

Dimetrodon and Spinosaurus Ankylosaurus and Didicurious

First by the way awesome video

Sometime I don't understand why some peoples stating that prehistoric animals don't exist at all. What should I say to them? Any idea?

Here's the real question, what would happen if icthyosaurs never went extinct and survived the K-T mass extinction event? Would dolphins and orcas evolve?

So according to this, it’s actually likely that if we ever find intelligent alien, it might be humanoid/bipedal?

I think they also are convergantltly evolved with sharks

ICHTHYOSAURIA LOOKS LIKE A SWORD-FISH

Dolphin - Ichthyosaur Whale - Mosasaur Porpoise - Plesiosaur

4:35 Species or genus?

Love this episode on the unique group of marine reptiles that are ichthyosaurs. Here's a 90's animation of them: m.ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xvHsOVQ5uSA.html

megalania y komodo dragon

Where are your older videos of Jurassic Park/World scientifically accurate Dinosaurs?

A creature a look like Sort of like Mirror Gag of it

Poor itchyosaurs They can’t scratch that itch they got I’ll see myself out

these features will exist in other oceans on other worlds..

Dolphin looks thicker than Stenopterygius cyoot ;)

www.paleophilatelie.eu/topics/paleo/vertebrate/ichthyosaur.html - you might like this article about the History of Ichthyosaurs Discovery

Dude what are you talking about?? They do not look similar at all. The Ichthyosaurus has a vertical tail that moves side to side while the common bottlenose dolphin has a horizontal tail that it moves up and down. The Ichthyosaurus also has back flippers and the common bottlenose does not, nor any other cetacean. And most cetaceans today don't have that long of a beak or that big of eyes.

Chiroptera and Pterodactlys

itchtyosaurus are size like a dolphin

Obligatory comment for the RU-vid Algorithm gods

Why the baby ichthiosaurs in this animation has smaller eyes than of adults Isn't spouse to be the opposite Because y'know eyes don't grow up

Explains why superman looks human.

Dolphin did look like icthyosaurus

The dolphins that are reptiles:

So lizard people are still theoretically possible?

Creaking Skull

But just in body plan, Ichthyosaurs were probably not intelligent and not living in social family groups.

Earth "I'm going to make these cute smart sea animals and kill them" *does so* Earth "...." "Want to see me do it again?"

I never would have thought that I would ever hear ichthyosaurs called thiccc. Especially not with 3 C's

90 million years ... Difficult to fathom !

Like Ichthyosaurs, ceteceans will also become extinct

If scientists wanted to know if ichthyosaurus take care of it's babies, bring it back from extinction. Actually you know what, bring the ichthyosaurus back from extinction. Except for Temndontosaurus it can stay extinct

🙄🙄

Will you mewy me? uwu

Dolphins are just wannabe Ichthyosaurs. You can't change my mind 😤

THEY NOT LOOK SIMILAR TO ME...

Ichthyosaurs are ancient mammals they are ancient whale ancestors. They also have convergent and divergent evolution backwards to be quite honest.