Qianosuchus: The Triassic Terror of Both Land and Sea 

Agreed

Exactly

Agree 100%

Yeah I was reminded of polar bears while listening to this as well. Makes sense given the environment it was apparently living in and explains the sort of "jack of all trades but master of none" set of features it has.

thats what he said in the video

I actually did consider adding a line about island hopping (which seems likely) along with the possibility that it was merely hunting aquatic prey from the shore, as implied by some of the art. Givens how some of its aquatic adaptions, like the tail, are better than those of crocodiles, it would have concluded that Qianosuchus was indeed a "part-time" underwater pursuit predator.

@@chimerasuchus Yeah. I guess in an island environment you have an advantage if you can exploit different types of ressources and if you are very mobile. Apart from the saltwater crocodiles, the other modern crocs are not long distance endurance swimmers, so this thing having a better swimming tail than modern crocs makes sense. On the other hand, if you want to hunt on land, you have to have those longer legs, the shorter legs of modern crocs only make sense in something hunting exclusively under water. At it's size it probably didn't have much competition from larger predators on those small islands, but it had to be fast and nimble because of larger, specialized predators in the ocean.

comodo dragon well known to travel between islands too

The major difference is that Qianosuchus was far more competent on land than a sea lion or most other semi-aquatic animals.

@@chimerasuchus ye , i'd guess so , still it was pretty unique ecologically ,

More like monitor lizard lifestyle

Similar to a polar bear.

You're welcome.

"Pseudosuchia" always sounded somewhat off to me too.

Yeah. Although I like the sound of "Psuedosuchia", it and the other names would have made sense for clades that are sister groups of those containing crocodilians, like the Notosuchia and Rauisuchidae.

Or suchiosuchus

It might be good he's waiting. I think a paper came out this year that challenged the old size estimates and significantly downgraded the max possible size of that beast. It still would have been huge - bigger than anything alive today, but not a contender for largest ever anymore. That is, if the new paper holds up over time. All that to say, the silver lining of waiting is we'll likely get more up-to-date science reported.

The species in question is Nothosaurus zhangi. Nothosaurus giganteus was about the same size.

That video was narrated by someone else, Michael T Downey.

@@chimerasuchus I prefer your own narration much more.

It doesn't because evolution doesn't work like that. Mutations to DNA occur naturally in every single organisms. Most of these mutations do nothing (since a large amount of the genome does not code for anything and many changes do not actually affect the function of the resulting protein), some hurt the survival chances of the animal, and a few help it. These positive mutations mean it is more likely to survive and reproduce than its peers. Over time, some of these positive mutations spread to the entire population. This can also happen with neutral mutations, which is called genetic drift, although this is dependent on chance instead of natural selection. Eventually the population has changed enough that it can no longer be considered the same species as before. Additionally, when two populations of the same species are geographically isolated from each other long enough, their DNA can diverge to the point that they can no longer interbreed. One this happens they are now considered two different species.

Well, a creature with the brain the size of a walnut can make a youtube channel and comment. Don't underestimate the walnut brain.

@@chimerasuchus evolution doesn’t work that way because evolution doesn’t work.