The Rocky Road for Triassic Mammals 

Another compelling and important video - thx! Personally I don’t think that intelligent life could only have evolved from mammals. Dinosaurs (eg Struthiomimids) with binocular vision, expanding brains and hands with opposing “thumbs” had all the ingredients needed for the runaway evolution of intelligence that - for poorly understood reasons - happens in humans.

To think the Dycynodonts almost were the dominant groups in the Mesozoic, I wonder what would have happened if they had been

my problem with the Drake equation is the jump from "probability of life" to "probability of intelligence". There are a LOT of big steps in between there, whose probabilities are not known, and likely very small. (Apart from some astronomical ones overlooked, like: fraction of planetary systems with large planets in stable orbits to allow billions of years of stable planetary orbits of smaller terrestrial planets in habitable zone (apparently the presence of a Saturn-like planet in ours was crucial to prevent Jupiter from drifting nearer to the sun and disrupting the orbits of the 5 terrestrial planets), presence of a large moon to stabilize climate through stabilizing axial tilt, fraction of rocky planets that are not pure ocean worlds - very hard to have a radio-technology-capable civilization develop on a water world, etc)

Thanks. I really liked your video. I haven't had a chance to learn about life in the Triassic since I was a child. Then I went off into the physical sciences. Now I have the time to learn all the news that I missed in the last 60 years. The books look interesting too. I have a book about how life returned after the ice age. I have read it many times - it is that interesting to me.

We're the only highly technical civilization, not the only intelligence.

I think the crossing of our trachea and oesophagus was a damned risky move! That could've done for us many times over! I blame the Mudkips!

So glad you're uploading frequently again Dr. Burger! We really missed your in depth paleo content here on the Tube. I love to think about the ancient Mesozoic conifer forests, to imagine these little guys going about living alongside little pterosaurs and proto birds.

Thank you for yet another excellent and thoughtful video. To pick up on the other end with regard to 'high intelligence' and it's likely extreme rarity a few drastically oversimplified thoughts: I would suggest us humans are barely capable of 'high intelligence' at all and everything we have achieved so far is the result of barely sufficient ability and numbers until the last 2-300 years or so. If one considers any 'ability' within a population usually follows a normal distribution one might argue the vast majority of us are really only capable of being functional within our environment and society - novelty and innovation being restricted to a tiny proportion at the 'high' end of said distribution. Now consider the Neanderthals, seemingly our closest peers. There is seemingly nothing to choose between them and us but in spite of having a good 100k year head start their technology for want of a better word 'stagnated', why? Given what we know I would expect the normal distributions of 'abilities' for Neanderthals had something like a 95% overlap with ours, so close in fact that I would expect any random Neanderthal brought up in modern society would do just fine. The tiny difference that made all the difference was maybe our slightly 'higher' distribution along with greater overall numbers affording us just enough extra 'innovators' that we not only came up with newer technologies but they were able to stick over time... even so if you look at the last 300k of H. Sapiens 'progress' it's obvious it was very touch-and-go for most of our existence - innovation and 'progress' have really only exploded as our numbers have. In short 'we' may be the only known 'high intelligence' in the universe, and yet I would argue we barely made it to our 'lofty' position and even today only a tiny proportion of us just about qualify. Yes, I err on the 'Rare Earth' side of the Fermi Paradox debate while also recognising 'we' hardly qualify. I hope that was interesting to some. Please recognise I took some dreadful leaps of oversimplification for brevity, no need to pick all too obvious holes. PS Dr Burger, Thank you so very much for you thought-provoking and highly interesting videos. Speaking as an interested amateur I find your point about the possible alternate phylogeny of Monotremes and Multituberculates most intriguing - I've tried to look in to the subject of 'protomammals' on numerous occasions and always found it confusing, not being able to line up in my head what the texts say with what photos seemed to present. More than likely just my stupidity but at first glance this 'alternate' narrative seems to make more sense to me. Thank you again.

Great, fantastic video! Love it!

Thank you. I really enjoy your uploads

Great video!

I really appreciate the time and effort you take to share this wonderful and interesting knowledge with us. Thanks again.

Hi teacher! You are very kind and nice teacher to listen! I love your way of teaching us something about dinosaurs and please continue to make videos ! We love you!

I never made it past the 8th grade. I appreciate this. I have been able to teach my self to write well enough, that I can be understood. I have improved my vocabulary and. I would just never be able to understand what you were saying 38 years ago.

Very fine program, Dr. Burger! This is one of my favorite eras in our planet's ancient past. Many thanks again!

I love this so much! Huge fan, new to your work and binging your content. I like that you feature Ray Trolls art. I thought I was going into Paleontology back in 1992 but did not. I love and appreciate your expertise and thank you for great videos! '

Great video! I'm enjoying your Planet Earth class. Learning a lot of really cool things. You are an awesome teacher!!

I'm thinking about that One creature back in the Cambrian that survived, and it's descendants succeeded in surviving, eventually leading to us. Talk about a Hard Road to travel.

Love the videos dude plz keep em coming

Can you tell about indian dinosaurs like the Rajasaurus

Very informative!

Dr. B B kicks a**.

Does every geologist wear an Indiana Jones hat? Baseball caps are too.... pedestrian?

nice expose', "The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth" couldn't be more true. The Triassic was just Weird, evolution gone rampant, I guess eventual Humans, the Weirdest of the Bunch, from this conflagration should have been expected.

rip dinos, if only the knew the pleasures of alcohol they wouldnt have summoned that meteor.

No, we're not the only intelligent species in the known universe, we're the only known intelligent species in universe.

that herrerasaurus meme was kinda annoying

Not reptiles at all .

Ridiculous useless equation