The implications that archisauriformes ancestrally had a more endothermic, high metabolisms, and that modern reptiles may be the EXCEPTIONS to the group is absolutely astounding, and once again, something I had never would have thought of without watching your content! Everytime I tune in I learn and want to research so much more on so many topics!! Great video as always man! Thanks for inspiring me to start making my own content!
@@brianhammer5107 -Crocodilians have a number of traits that are associated with warm-blooded, active metabolisms, altered to use and need less energy in ways that differ from other extant and extinct cold blooded reptiles. These include four chambered hearts, which an evolved shunt can modify to act like a three-chambered hearts when underwater and requiring using less oxygen, unidirectional breathing, a diaphragm, and a secondary palate. -The earliest known fossil crocodylomorphs were bipedal with long legs, a bauplan found essentially exclusively in active warm blooded animals, as it's energetically expensive to stand up compared with shorter legs and more typical sprawled-leg movement. -a group of very crocodile-like archosauriformes, with extreme convergence in body shape, that diverged before the crocodiles and dinosaurs split, notably lack the secondary palate and have a more sprawled posture -there are degrees to warm bloodedness. The ancestor of crocodiles was not likely warm blooded to the same extent as birds are, but simply considerably warmer-blooded than modern crocodiles are, more similar to the aphanosaurs.
When I was a kid watching Walking with Monsters, I was in awe of their appearance and their manner of hunting their prey down. This creature is the very reason why I love crocodilians. Thanks for the memories, Proterosuchus!
Periods afther mass extinctions are always pretty intresting : From the small erbivores reaching larger populations than all other organisms combined , Apex predators being basically the mesopredator of the previus ecosystem but bigger , And all the many many weird and unexpected organisms
Yet another stellar video. The variety of animals to live throughout Earth's history, far beyond the handful of plastic dinosaurs we see in children's playsets, never ceases to amaze me!
Reagrding their possible amphibian lifestyle, I like to think Proterosuchus was kinda like a komodo dragon. A mostly terrestrial hunter who's still a decently good swimmer and able to catch prey on the water as well despite not being as specialized for it as crocodiles.
I appreciate your speaking pace. I know little of your topics but I find it fascinating. Your pace enables me to digest more of the information and not be so overwhelmed by all the scientific nomenclature. Thank you so much and I look forward to more.
Good video. I learned quite a bit about Proterosuchus from this. and I'm learning much about crocodilians and cocodylomorphs from this channel in general.
Imagine suddenly being there, roasting to death from very high temperatures, permanently hyperventilating from the sudden abundance of oxygen, and seeing a very hungry long dog sized monster that wants nothing more than feed and breed.
Thanks for the video, early archosauriforrmes are not sonething i have really looked into. Thanks for bringing us this harbringer of the age of archosaurs!
I think it mightve been semi aquatic as in a water monitor able to swim well enough to hunt crossing animals and fish but with its long legs also could roam around and hunt on land
It's interesting that archosauroforms were ancestrally more endothermic but it malws sense that their ancestors would have been evolving during the end 100 million year Karoo ice age in the Permian. It's easy to forget dinosaurs and their archosauromorph ancestors emerged in conditions more similar to ours before basking in the houthouse that lasted until the Eocene.
I have always stated that if you're going to use your Head generally, your Face specifically, as a Weapon, might as well carry around something Military Grade.
It seems to me like this was primarily a terrestrial predator, but it’s features enabled it to hunt amphibiously when suitable, but in a perhaps unusual way. Maybe in those instances, it wasn’t hunting aquatically like crocodilians, but instead still hunting terrestrial prey, just from the water, targeting them when they came near to the water. Perhaps this is why its odd nostril placement was useful; maybe it only stuck it’s nostrils up to breath in those situations, keeping its eyes underwater. And the increased downward curve of its overbite could have meant an increased angle at which it held its head up to breath, meaning the eyes would be kept further down from the water’s surface and perhaps lessening the affects of refraction and fresnel distorting the image above water. This might explain the teeth not having wear characteristic of aquatic hunters, and the overbite may have come in even handier for the grip needed to keep prey from pulling itself up and out of its jaws with its position from the water being lower than the prey on those occasions.
Most crocodilians hunt aquatic prey from the water. That is what was meant when it was said Proterosuchus may have been a semi-aquatic hunter. Part of the reason crocodilian eyes are so high on their skull is that they can't properly see their prey on the shore if their eyes are underwater.
@@chimerasuchus Yes, those facts are sensical for crocodilians. I was making my own theory that wasn’t in the video to account for the unique morphology of this animal. I’m not saying my theory is correct, just that for a creature that is so unique from anything else we know, goes to figure it wouldn’t work exactly like anything else we know
i think they used the hooked jaw like modern day birds almost using it to peck so it doesnt risk getting too close and commitment to a bite, the force of the prey running would tear itself on the teeth present on the hooked jaw, it would probably chase its prey this way preferring this method being less risky it probably also used the hook to snatch up creatures or to trap them in its jaws preventing escape couldve also been used for catching fish. just a theory
I don't understand that overbite. It would be a very weak point indeed and could easily break with struggling prey. I think there's something missing in its description.
Maybe it lived like the contemporary Asian water monitor, hunting everything it can get in and near water, but not with the croc strategy of ambushing land animals that come to the water to drink.
All these creatures are amazing! The bend at the front of its head could have been used to hook prey so it couldn’t get away, and once those teeth are in, the more the prey struggled, the deeper they dug in! 🤣
I love learning about ancient animals. As much as I like dinosaurs, I can't help but find many of the Triassic animals more interesting lately. The world really went over to the reptiles for such a long period of time.
You sure that thing wasn’t found in Britain? Like, yesterday? I’ve seen them folk across the water there, same overbite and stumpy legs... hey... -That’s just a British person! I knew it...
Proterosuchus itself not, however, Proterosuchudae as a whole are known from the very late Permian, with a creature similar to Archosaurus being it's direct ancestor, evolving into Proterosuchus shortly after the begging of the Triassic.
Why did raptors have feathers and the massive claws? My theory is, that as feathered dinosaurs, raptors could have also used the massive claws for climbing attacks from trees, climbing into a tree with the claw and diving onto it's prey from stealth, striking it with the massive climbing claw, using gravity to multiply its force. This would also explain the evolution of birds, as the evolution pressure would be increasingly more on the gliding ability, therefore naturally leading into evolution of feathers, and later onto flapping and eventually powered flight. Thinking of it: many birds such as owls, eagles and hawks dive hunt today - owls especially exactly from trees. Not unheard idea in the modern raptor family at least. Would it make sense that it all started from raptors living in the dinosaur era? The massive claw getting increasingly bigger as the evolution favored climbing and dive attacking from stealth onto their prey, eventually leading to the evolution of powered flight and to birds we see today. Ps. this massive claw would be also good for hanging in the trees, waiting for prey to walk under it. it would be both the main weapon to penetrate skull/thick skin with the glide strike and to hang from the trees with the littlest effort possible.
my favorite version of Proterosuchus as got to be the one from Animal Armageddon even though it was most likely an Archosaurus. I especially love the scene where it takes down a Gorgonopsid to show that its top dog in this new era the Triassic.
