(breakdown of what is canon/what is not further down in this comment) *TIMESTAMPS* 00:00 - Intro 01:17 - Flying Wyverns 02:40 - The Basics of Phylogeny 03:45 - Sauriscia 04:23 - Nonalisopoda 05:58 - Dracopoda 07:41 - True Foot Wyvern 08:23 - False Foot Wyvern 10:20 - Shell Wyvern 11:35 - Carapace Wyvern 15:45 - Strange Wyvern 17:20 - Electric Wing Wyvern 18:33 - Unordered Superfamilies 22:53 - Outro UPDATE: The Sunbreak Lore Book just released, and it reveals that Espinas is in fact NOT closely related to the Carapace Wyvern. Instead, it has its own standalone Superfamily within Dracopoda. *What is inarguably canon?* - The phylogenetic tree itself (except Espinas). Capcom releases one with every artbook, and the one in this video is based on the phylogeny presented in the Rise Artbook, as well as its translation by BannedLagiacrus (see sources below). - The Wyvern Rex. - Biology facts about the Monsters (e.g. Astalos' Wings) *What is an educated guess/moderate changes?* - Some of the Infraorder/Superfamily names are altered. Nonalisopoda, True Foot Wyvern and False Foot Wyvern are simply called "Unknown", Dracopoda is called "Wyvern Feet". - The Placement of Espinas. We know from Frontier that it is closely related to Gravios and Diablos, but since the Sunbreak Artbook isn't out yet, we don't know for sure. - The Characteristics of the Infraorders. Most of them are easily observable, but it's important to note that they are not explicitly stated in any text as of yet. *What is entirely made up?* - The taxonomic names for individual species (e.g nargacuga tenebris). They do not exist officially, I just thought they'd be cool and non-intrusive. *SOURCES* Hunter's Encyclopedia G, III, IV Monster Hunter World: Complete Works Monster Hunter Illustrations Monster Hunter Rise Official Design Works Phylogenetic Tree based on BannedLagi's translations found here: twitter.com/BannedDino/status/1483853487310053377
You're still doing these? I bumped into your World videos and drank them up like water. I thought you were done but praise almighty Zinogre you're still in it! I absolutely love the zoological approach and the coherent scientific nomenclature you create to fill in the gaps. I feel World enriched the MH franchise this way and you further enrich it with content like this.
2:13 THANK YOU! I recently was having an argument with someone who didn't think Akantor was a flying wyvern, simply because, "they're called flying wyverns for a reason". When I pointed out the members that couldn't fly, they then changed it to "they have to have wings", and completely ignored the vestigle remnants on Akantor's arms
I cannot thank you enough for never using the term "Pseudowyvern" during this entire video. People are so adament in using it, they have forgotten that it is just a fan invented term. Thanks for this video!
I friggin love how diverse and expansive this class of monsters are, its often the case with fantasy monster types that there's an even distribution of types or families, but with how natural world driven this game series is it feels right that Flying Wyverns are commonly dominant like dinosaurs were in our past or mammals now. Wait actually, they are basically as diverse as birds, just also on the scale of dominant apex predators and mega herbivores no islands required. I never get tired of seeing them either cause they have so many different sub classes. My playthrough of MH Stories 2 for the most part was dominated by Flying wyverns. Diablos was my most reoccurring choice alongside Tigrex.
I found this channel a little while ago and I have to say that the amount of detail and effort that goes into these videos is unprecedented. I am genuinely in awe every time I watch one of your video. keep up the good work dude, here's to your inevitable popularity 🍺
There are some issues with this phylogenetic tree. And that is that it doesn't seem to take in account for the wing structure itself which is far more telling than whether or not the monsters' is using its forelimb to walk or not. And so the monsters in the flying wyvern tree should first be divided by how many digits are used in the wing membrane and how many digits are free from the wing membrane. For example, Diablos, Akantor, Ukanlos, Nargacuga, Tigrex, Barioth, and Gigginox all have 3 digits not used to make the wing.
Yeah I think while these trees are a fun little treat for the artbooks, they don't hold up to genuine, professional scrutiny. But I also didn't want to change *too* much from what we are given officially :D
gosh, I've been wanting to see a possible MH evolutionary tree for a long time thank you for delivering with the flying wyvern category. I'm looking forward to more if you do more.
Appreciate all the hard works that went into these lore/ecology videos. They're a great source of inspiration for me. Totally would enjoy a 2 hour long podcast of you just talking MH lore.
Well done! This was a fun and insightful video covering the various types of flying wyverns. Can't wait to see your work covering the other classifications of "monster" types.
I heard that the mysterious Unknown Black Flying Wyvern from the Mezeporta region was recently named by the guild. Supposedly it is called “Ra Ro”. Maybe someday you can do a documentary on animals from that region!
It wasn't "recently named", it's a name that was used very scarcely back during Frontier's lifecycle , but it got largely overshadowed by just the word UNKNOWN, probably cause "Ra Ro" is a really stupid name. You can see more about this in the General Notes on Unknown's wiki page.
I loooove how like tierzoo makes videos that make life seem like we are playing a game you make monster hunter documentaries like we are living in the world
Something I find interesting is that bazelgeuse is the only monster with more then 6 digits per limbs, going easily over 20. This just seems to be too much a change in morphology to be believable for me and I honestly think they will have to retcon this at some point and give it just 6 fingers on its wings. This would also be in my opinion necessary if they ever make a bazelgeuse seregios hybrid.
Those are probably not true digits, but extending membranes, with the actual original digits degenerating into only the single wing-claw and the extended digit holding the wing membranes.
Between you and Unnatural History Museum, the amount of incredible scientific videos of the monster hunter series is simply awesome! Fantastic work, and an excellent video idea. Hope to see more soon!
I know I’ve taken a long time to say this, but are you ever going to consider doing a video on the Leviathan or perhaps the herbivore maybe I mean I just love watching and listening to your videos a lot and I mean a lot
For Espinas, I always had the theory that their multiple element fire balls were a result of using the same chambered sac the Gravios/Basarios use- just with their mouth. They probably diverged around the time their special sacs developed
My personal opinion is that bazelguese is a separate superfamily, as it it has similar wing structure to the true flying wyverns, but it's specializes scales don't fit any already existing clade. Meanwhile, I believe the the sharp, triangular bladescales of seregios are reminiscent of thorn wyverns, adapted for offense instead of defense, so it is either a subset of thorn wyverns, or a member of the bazelguese superfamily, which I will call detaching scale wyverns.
I think you left out some species of flying wyverns such as the new mhrise flying wyverns but its understandsble since they came up not long ago, excellent job I love your videos
I’ll never understand how Ukanlos and Akantor are flying wyverns lmao. Always thought they should be elder dragons and if not they definitely should be a different type of species.
i wonder what the guild thought of classifying flying wyvern cause it would have been confusing to find out that not all flying wyvern fly that must have been confusing
Hey, in the future, could you do a similar video to this but make the family tree about real-world biology. For example, the nargacuga and barrioth are clearly relatives of cats. And the paolumu is obviously a bat.
Do you know what something I just realize? You only use monsters from the main line games in these documentaries, kind of makes me wonder if in the future you will include monsters from the games, unique to the east and spinoffs. It would be cool to see a true family tree that way.
Looking at this i have found that some other monsters could Fit in these trees like the nergigante could be a shell Wyvern or another family completely, called something like regenerative armor Wyvern, given that they damage and lose their scales but can also regrow and harden them enough to count as a secondary skin, at least that Is my idea
isnt the last bit about convergent evolution a bit wrong? I mean both of these Wyverns are obviously related as they are both Dracopoda? Wouldnt Convergent Evolution usually refer to way more distant animals getting similiar traits (Like Birds and Bats getting wings to fly)
Nicely done. Ive found other channels covering this topic tend to be too rigid and conventional in their rationale. Monsters evolved entirely separate from earth life. They arent simply ‘dinosaurs’ or ‘mammals’ they are entirely alien clades their similarities are analogous not homologous to earth organisms.
It makes a lot of sense, as they're not really that large and bulky. As far as Flying Wyvern goes, it seems they're actually one of the smaller species on average.
Great video and I love the blend of natural history and fiction. My only question is regarding sauriscia. Did you intentionally change that? Because the real word is Saurischia with an 'h' and because it's a Greek root word it's pronounced saur-iss-key-ah not saur-iss-she-ah like you did. These are incredibly minor nitpick but just wondering if they were accidental or intential changes to the real life analogous word.
I feel like Legiana and Astalos are more related than this tree implies, they also have an expanding head wing that contracts for seemingly no reason other than temperature regulation, and has an insectoid body similar both in shape and texture to Astalos. While I'm sure you did this because Legiana was only recently discovered, it just fits too well. It's also weird for the entire family to be designated by a single organ (astalos' kinesiosac) when there are many features that are too similar to ignore. I say we call this order the Insect Flying Wyvern super family, characterized by their insectoid features in addition to their elemental sacs that are effected by their physical activity (As Legiana's frost sac is what let's it secrete ice through the rest of the body and mainly the chest.)
Official pronunciation was revealed in the Sunbreak TU4 event to be what you hear in this video. But honestly just say it how it comes naturally to you, its no big deal and Capcom themselves are very inconsistent with it anyway (e.g the 3 official ways to pronounce Tigrex :P)
I have to ask if you had a specific source for this or not. I ask because this is not at all how i would expect this to he made. I would have gone hased on bod h type for the base infraorder like how seregios and astalos have a near ieentical body structure. I feel this woupd be more accurate to the reality of how evolutionary lines work.
The general tree is outlined in the MHRise Artbook, theres a link to it, as well as its translations, in both the description and pinned comment (at the bottom of both) :D
@@Oceaniz oh thanks! And i just want to say i love your work on these. The redacted file especilly was buetifully made and really displayed how terriffying an elder dragon truely is.
Wonderful video but an FYI you listed "subspecies" as species names. For example the western lowland gorilla, Gorilla gorilla gorilla. The 1st "gorilla" denotes genus, the 2nd species and the 3rd is the subspecies I used gorilla because its scientific name is so incredibly stupid and it's funny
is this family tree official? if so i never really saw Espinas being related to Gravios that closely also i don;t care if i die on this hill Paolumu is NOT a wyvern, it is CLEARLY a fanged beast, i mean LOOK AT IT, it's a fluffy bat thing that has a Thylacaleo mouth and a beaver tail, it's clearly a mammal not a reptile
The tree itself is official, but Espinas' placement is a little iffy. Capcom releases these trees with every artbook, but because the Sunbreak Artbook isn't out yet, Espinas has so far not been included. However, in Frontier's Design Works, it is mentioned that its closest relatives are indeed Gravios and Diablos. So while we have so far not seen Espinas be placed anywhere directly, the info we have on him makes his spot on the tree not too hard to deduce (until the Sunbreak tree comes out and proves me wrong q.q)
@@Oceaniz PERSONALLY, i always saw Espinas as convergent evolution with carapace wyverns while itself is a Shelled wyvern, making it closer to the Raths than the Blos and Gravios but if it IS related to them guys, it might explain how it uses its wings to help turn while charging oh never knew they had them in the art book, i must get my hands on these books and read them
@@evodolka it makes perfect sense for Espinas to be more closely related to the Armor Wyverns. Gravios has the ability to inflict multiple ailmments as well- Fireblight, poison, and sleep. Unlike Espinas, however, Gravios can expel various gases out of its body in a metabolic process. This comes at a cost of not being able to infuse its fire with these blights like Espinas. ...If anything, Espinas sits squarely between the True Flying Wyverns and the Armor Wyverns, probably as an evolutionary link.
@@TornaitSuperBird it makes sense, i just also saw the possibility of it being close to the raths is all i always thought that was caused due to a diet of rocks, like how Uragaan can do that too i could see that being a possible placement also
