When Reptiles Had Really Long Necks 

To be fair this guy is living in an environment where fossilization is highly likely. Therefore fossil abundance may not directly correlate with population abundance.

Let's be honest nature just want to make a funny looking lizard

This channel is so underrated. Your voice is perfect and the videos are incredible

"Sharovipteryx" means "Sharov's wing," not "foot wing." "Podopteryx" was already in use, so this creature was renamed.

Long necks were a thing back then. Also, that splash sound in the intro is the best (waited a long time to say this lol)

Ah yes, the Triassic! Earth's early acces phase

Whenever ancient reptiles come up, there always seems to be discussion over whether they’re allied with the archosaurs or the lepidosaurs. I’d be really interested in a video about the divergence of the two clades, or maybe something about the history of the squamates.

Speaking of which, it's fun to imagine that snakes are just a head and very long neck

"When tanystropheus was at large" I think you mean at length

Wouldn't the absurdly long neck also be useful to spot predators from a long (lol) distance? I like to think that they occasionally stood up on their hind legs and stretched their necks to get a good look at everything around them

I would love it if all the big documentary company's would give some attention to the early Triassic and its beautiful weird animals! Just imagine Tanystropheus with modern animations and graphics and practical effects!

Also, who remembers this animal from Chased by Sea Monsters and thought it could drop its tail?

You completely glossed over the later developments of this animal and how it deferred extinction for a longer while by diversifying into the more select niche of rap music when it worked with the Wu-Tang Clan on their debut track "Protect Ya Neck."

This is becoming my favorite channel, keep it up, you are awesome!

Moth Light Media out here really invading the ecological niche of PBS eons

Tanystropheus: "I had a long neck before it was cool."

Ah some of my favourite Triassic oddballs! Great video.

Your voice is so relaxing. I always listen to this channel before bed. Only problem is, I have run our of videos so now I an rewatching

Hey Moth Light Media where do you get your music?

Imagine them having a pain in the neck. I can! (sorta)

Thank you for your excellent and informative video. With the modern day reptile at 3:12, these animals have such an ancient appearance to them.

The smaller one seems like it would eat insects or other small animals.

Too cool Your knowledge is impressive and I can only echo that this channel is underrated and your work impeccable

It must have been very graceful, to see in motion.

I love how your videos take subjects that have already been brought up a million times before but adds details that no other mentions

The soft background music on your earlier videos went very well with your voice. Please bring it back. Great video as always.

Your content has only been improving with each video. Love this channel

LOVE this channel!! Great for when I’m working and need to LEARN NEW INFORMATION, great job

I reckon they lay on their bellies at the edge of the waterside with its long neck submerged and waited for pray to come along

I love your channel. My only comment is that I miss the music used in some of your older videos.

This video answers "how" reptiles got longer necks but to answer "why", I think it's highly related to the difference between the rib cage shapes of mammals vs reptiles/birds. Mammals' are short and that allows us to roll vertically easier and reptiles have long rib cage so they can only sway their vertebrae left/right and thus have to have long neck to compensate for vertical movement.

I find when cleaning my 4 year olds room with lots of toys scattered about, it’s easier to sit on the ground, or have a stool and grab everything around me, rather than to stoop and move around. Similarly, the long neck seems to mimic this strategy, where the most efficient way to harvest things is to stay in one place and use your arms (or neck in this animals case) to grab stuff around them. What I don’t understand is how they defended themselves.

So their long necks were essentially long fishing rods.

Could a body that large be sustained with the lifestyle of a heron?

Could also use the neck the same way pleisiosaurs did, but in grassy estuaries. Walking through shallow waters but the head is far enough from a noisy body to surprise any fish in the shallow, grassy floodplains

[1st date] (thinks) dont let her know ur a Tanystropheus **sees pond, cranes my 30ft neck towards it** ya could i get a ton of fucken fish

I love this channel. Never anything but the highest quality and most interesting topics.

Your content is extremely educational. Keep it up.

Another fantastic exploration of another intriguing ancient animal. Very much enjoyed it!

I have a question, not directly related to this video. About how many prehistoric fossils are found in an average year? Or is there some kind of official register with every found dinosaur fossil today? On the danger of seeming like a full blown idiot, i'm just wondering. Sinve there are soo many prehistoric animals known and studied and all, it seems like fossils pop up all 5 meters.

Always amazing how much can be learned from bones that technically aren't even there anymore.

Awesome! Tanystropheus has always fascinated me as a bizarre and unique marine reptile.

Instead of going to a therapist, i listen to this mans voice.

Just speculation on my part, but I feel like the base of their necks and the upper back would be much more defined by muscles to support their heads. I wouldn't be surprised if this species was bulkier and more muscular than depicted in art and may have contributed to their success. Just take a look at Giraffe anatomy.

If I've learnt anything by watching your channel is that God was absolutely trippin' during the Triassic.

Awesome video. Can you do one on hooved mammals? Specifically even toed hooved mammals

love the content

Giraffes: Am I a joke to you?

2:08 Guys... guys Guys. Guys listen. I have the best idea guys listen I have the best idea ever guys I'll put WINGS guys wings I'll put wings guys listen here I'll put WINGS...on my BACK legs.

You know what would make me laugh, is if the long necks originally reduced predation on them. Only to have sexual selection taking over and thus the descendance then had to find ways to make the long neck work. Boy is that a long shot idea, with odds of it being true 0.00000627%!

Would really appreciate if you would set up a playlist. The videos are so short it's a pain to keep having to get and click on the next video. If I let yootoob choose the auto play I' always end on the dark side of youtube eventually.

I know what I am about to say is inaccurate, but- Big snakes with legs is all I can think about-

I need to stop watching these videos to go to bed. I end up staying up late watching.

more like reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyyyyyy long necks

sorry, babe, but moth light media uploaded and i cant go on our date. this is more important.

I remember the BBC special with Nigal Marvin great vid! Could you please to a video on mustelids, keep it up!

What if it was in the same niche as snake? Like it could coil it's neck back and dart it forward to attack. Or it did that under water peaking it's head out and shooting it out to get bugs who would never know they where in range. But who knows, we'll just have to clone it back to life to find out.

Macrocnemus reminds me of a wingless dragon, tbh

It’s crazy to think about how many different creatures used to live here

What is the evidence that it held its neck out straight like the pictures? Could it have held its neck bent like a heron? This could give its head more speed for catching fish.

Anyone else expected this video to be on sauropods? Not disappointed tho

If it wasn't capable of swimming, maybe it could've waded through shallow water like a certain theropod dinosaur, using its neck to reach prey in deeper water.

0:52 this must be the inspiration for Sandile in pokemon

Fish: over there Tanystropheus: more necc

Very interesting and informative, thank you.

I love this channel

I watched one of your videos and now I can’t stop

This is amazing

I bet he was like nature's fishing rod

Hey man, I am always looking forward to your videos. I am subscribed to you since you had about 5k subscribers. Keep up the good work

I love your channel. I was wondering if you check out these three giant salamanders. two ftomthe Paleocene epoch called Aviturus exsecratus, Piceoerpeton and one from pleistocene Florida called Batrachosauroides dissimulans. I think it's fascinating that there ware large amphibians living during the cenozoic.

I'm a bit disappointed that they're not fucking huge

Great video, beautifully presented!

God was like “yeah but what If I made him with a long ass neck”

Are the mating in the thumbnail 🤣

Their food would expire by the time it reaches the stomach

Why the long neck?Maybe, like with the giraffe, sexual dimorphism could have played a role.

I always loved these animals

4:00 Btw I like the American pronunciation of ‘estuaries’ - for reasons too boring to get into I support the ‘standardization’ of English globally👍

It's funny how we enjoyed talking pictures and not animation

I’m so fascinated by these reptiles and plesiosaurs. We have no long necked aquatic reptiles or mammals today, only land birds… ostriches… and yet we have geese and swans, which live ON the water….

They would probably walk more upright. The giraffes are not walking all horisontal. Gives no sense to stress the neck max at all the time, and not use their eyes. Eyes at groundlevel gives less information, and if these are predators they would scout for pray. In the water they could probably swim like a snake. My thoughts; They would walk more like the giraffe, because of physics.

Amazing channel! Love it so much! Informative, soothing, and consistent as hell

why am i watching this???

Naw, these guys were the arboreal hunters of the day, prowling the forest floor and sliding their necks up cycads. When young, they probably climbed trees and played at being mantids.

hell yeah new moth light

Kinda sounds like it was living the Sauropod life but just eating different foods. It's suggested that some Sauropods would eat ground level plants rather than reach up into the trees. So they would anchor themsevles safely out of the swamp or river bank and then use their long necks to allow them to reach plants without having to step in the mud and risk getting stuck. Eating fish could use the same strategy but the targeted food source would be different.

Not being a good swimmer does not exclude a mostly aquatic livestyle. Look at the Hippo for example one of the few Mamals evolved not to swim. and it uses that ability to run under water.

Imagine having a neck that long and turning your head the wrong way and pinching a nerve

They look kind of snake-shaped with a slightly enlarged middle. I wonder if their long necks didn’t slither along the ground with the back end following on little legs. Finally, I wonder whether the creature didn’t swim with sideways undulations of its whole body rather as a sea snake does.

Long necks seem to be a recurring theme among the archosaurs from the present subject to the sauropods, all the way forward in time to swans and geese, which can fly, and emus and ostriches, which can’t.

Perhaps the neck allowed it to lie in ambush It conserves energy to use your neck to move with greater speed to grab prey. Perhaps both fish and flying insects. I mean plants dont run very fast so eventually you would think that the giraffe body type would be one of those convergent evolution would present many times over and it had. It really bothers me that we see the tanystrophieds were the common animal of their day but we will never see or conceive the rare and incredibly specialized or simply anomalous animals. In fact we really seem to see only the most common and a few very lucky examples of life from any era and even have gaps of tens of millions of years of mot any examples of life. Leaving their very existence and purpose only conjecture and fantasy. It is so frustrating to know and what about when our planet is gone and we as life on a tiny planet at the very edge of a galaxy will simply be gone long before the mass spacefaring cultures of the central clusters have even advanced enough to travel here. So all we ever were even to those of us that move on to become new varied species whom will forget and never know that this is what and where all we shall become originated

Could the smaller species have used its neck to snatch tiny flying prey, or possibly to go down barrows and pull out small rodents or similar animals?

🤔 I bet you if one of these guys was not allowed to eat for 2 days. They would have pooped too much to maintain balance. I bet they wouldn't even be able to balance correctly enough to eat. Surrounded by food but not able to take a bite. Wonder how long it would have taken to starve to death.?

Tanystropheus has also been found in the Southern Alps in Northern Italy.

Very interesting!

The little ones probably crawled all over the rocks and stuff and stuck their heads down in cracks the grab like shrimp and crawdads and shit like that

Maybe it fed like a moose. Wading and hiding in shallow water using it's long neck to breathe without having to leave the water.

Why no music?

Three horns dont play with LONG necks