Now I need to learn why and how that spider's venom evolved to kill primates!? What were its ancestors thinking??? Or should we just applaud for their forsight? I need answers...
@@teddnaing6851 It would be so interesting and great to see evidence of primates in Australia (and since absence of fossil evidence doesn't prove nonexistence (only that said fossils haven't found... yet) we may hope😆)
It's not that they evolved it to work so devastatingly well on Primates, but rather that, for whatever reason, we evolved to be uniquely susceptible to said venom.
It'a one of like 5 things. 1. A conincidence 2. There WERE mammals that the spiders evoled against. 3. Bobobo levels of planning where they set up a perfect trap for a future battle that they aren't even aware of. 4. Aliens are fucking with us. 5. The future spider species got pissed at us and sent one of their operative species back in time to annoy us.
One of my high school teachers, many many years ago, was living in Australia and was bit by a spider in a movie theater. This was pre-antivenom. Since they couldn't locate the spider to id it, they rushed him to the hospital, where he was told to get comfortable. He'd either have 10 minutes, or the rest of his life. They'd know in about, oh, 10 minutes or so.
Australia does have a few native species of placental mammals besides bats, mostly aquatic rodents descended from Indonesian species that arrived via New Guinea about 5 million years ago. Placentals have a big advantage over marsupials in aquatic niches.
The only marsupial with an aquatic lifestyle is the yapok, a marsupial from South America. The females have special muscles around the opening of their pouch that keeps it water tight so their joeys don’t drown.
Yes Australia has some deadly creatures but we really don't encounter them all that much and there are ways of avoiding risk with them. I often see videos of people hiking in North America and wonder why they aren't afraid of bears, wolves, coyotes, mountain lions and any other wild predator over there. I am guessing it's for pretty much the same reason.
They are usually more afraid of people than people are of them, so you're pretty safe coming across them unless its a mother protecting its young. I've come across a bear before while deer hunting and it ran away.
Because black bears are timid, brown bears mostly live in alaska and canada, cougars barely kill anyone, wolves barely kill anyone and alligators also barely kill anyone.
@@ciragoettig1229nah thats fair. But crocodiles dont live in most of the country. They are technically mega-fauna that never went extinct. The standard advice for dealing with them is "dont go amywhere near where they might be" they are twice the weight of an american aligator and more aggresive. But by and large they live pretty far from most humans.
14:16 - to be fair, you failed to mention that in Florida they teach us how to tame and ride alligators in the sixth grade so we can use them as mounts to pick up a pub sub on the way through the orange grove to Disney World. Once you've mastered that skill it's easy to avoid being bitten.
I'm not sure if Australia was truely devoid of placentile mammals until 60,000 years ago, the reason I think this is because Australia does have a few endemic rodent species found in the north of the continent, and these are true rodents. Maybe they arived on the continent in a similar time that humans got their but I suspect that they could have rafted there independantly from south east asia a few glaciation periods ago. [Edit] just did some of the research and it turns out I was right, there was 2 waves of rodent colonization, the first was 6 million years ago and the second was only a million years ago. This time is long enough that the rodent lineages that settled Australia became their own unique group of rodents seperate from any of the other continents. So the idea that Australia was simply devoid of plencentile mammals other than bats until 60,000 years ago is not entirely true.
Tbh the Bogans are probably Australia’s scariest animal and even then they’re pretty friendly. Their sub species the cashed up bogans aren’t as bad unless you spot them at their local habit, a pokies and bar
A few issues with this. Salt-water crocs are only present in our Northern waters and rivers, and Sydney funnel-webs are only found around Sydney. The crocs only get the unwary, and the spiders haven't killed anyone since the anti-venom was developed 40+ years ago. The most dangerous common animal in Australia is the Eastern brown snake.
And I believe that there haven't been any fatalities attributed to eastern brown snakes since the development of an antivenom. The animal most likely to kill you in Australia is most likely another human.
@@andrewsmallacombe9468 Eastern brown snakes still kill people, but we don't usually hear about it. A 36 y.o tradie was bitten in my town only a few years ago. He was taken to the hospital and antivenom administered within half an hour, but he died less than an hour after being bitten.
@@andrewstrongman305 A quick search indicates that, yes, I was incorrect about no deaths, but Australian medical records indicate very few fatalities, averaging less than one per year.
@@andrewsmallacombe9468 I'd hope so. The point is, no other native animal is more dangerous in Victoria. Cows, horses, and dogs are all more dangerous.
As a Brazilian, I'm quite happy to see that people don't imagine that jaguars & pumas can be found in farmlands *really* near our federal capital. I've heard stories of family members who saw such kittens in farms that are as close as 40km (or 24,85 miles) to the National Congress.
Antarctica held a diverse population of marsupials that would rival Australia forty to fifty million years ago. The climate then was fourteen degrees hotter on average compared to today. Climate change may take away some coastlines. However, we gain a new continent.
If all the ice of antarctica melts, it does not take away "some" coastline. In that case we are completly screwed, since the majority of the human population lives close to the cost. A new barren and cold piece of usable land doenst make up for that.
@@oO0Xenos0Oo your assessment isn't accurate. The melting of the polar caps would be a gradual event. Not something that would happen over night like in the way of Doggerland flooding out in two years. Both Antarctica and Greenland will not be very cold like today. I am every bit confident that people in the future will find a way to grow crops on both land masses. Think of it as a practice run at terraforming.
@@minraja Even if Antarctica warms you're still looking at six months of complete darkness giving one good crop harvest, and that's assuming there's fertile soil below the ice which there isn't, and if people are desperate enough to move to Antarctica odds are they won't have our global fertiliser supply chains to rely on.
Mostly because of so called conservationists there are far too many big bears for the available food sources . This results in most of the bears being in a shocking state of near starvation which promotes cannibalism ,deadly encounters with human beings and farm animals, culling two thirds of big bears would greatly improve matters both for the bears and any humans they might meet
Dying from a bear is much worse than a snake bears won't give 2 damns and just get to eating also can't forget that they run a lot faster than a human so trying to outrun them is basically useless
Glad to see you back :) I recently discovered you from your Complete History of the Earth series, and to be honest, have watched it several dozen times already to watch and to fall asleep to 😂 Keep up the good work. We’re here for you!
I’m looking forward to your dropbear video next April, I’ve lost two family members to those monsters and people need to be educated to stay safe 🙏❤️ thankyou
Hey, I'm glad things are going better. You're absolutely my favorite prehistory channel. I've checked almost daily. I really can't wait for some long form stuff particularly on the miocene, also my favorite epoch, you do it better than anybody. The miocene is criminally underrated. Feel better, be healthy!
To be fair just because something is more dangerous in the past doesn't mean it's not dangerous now. But regardless a great video, These new extinct creatures are very neat, and under known
As an Australian crocodiles are mutch more abrasive than alligators and soulties are some of the more agro crocks and it's relatively hard to stay away up in Darwin a big soultie was spotted in an era where it was deemed safe. And megalenia was cool
There's no such thing as a "safe" swimming spot that isn't a pool in the north of Australia. More fool people for believing it to be safe. And yes, crocodiles in general are feistier than alligators.
@@seanmckelvey6618Yes, it’s very unusual that even a large alligator would attack an adult human for food. People swim in water with alligators not far away all the time, and attacks are rare. But it would be unusual for a crocodile (whether Saltie, Nile, Mugger, or American) NOT to attack a human swimming nearby if it’s even a little bit hungry. Crocs just seem to specialize in large mammalian prey, while alligators specialize in fish and small terrestrial prey, and only occasionally go after large mammals, even if they’re large enough to do so.
Thank you for that opening. It's a tired meme at this point. I'm more on guard hiking in the US than I am here. I've also pointed out to people that we have no bears, wolves nor big cats, but I think the most significant thing is Aussie wasps are chill af. I have disturbed nests while trimming hedges and all they've done is buzz around going 'wtf was that?' with not one of them even attempting to come for me. The flying hymenoptera in a lot of other places will swarm you for looking at them funny. Snakes and spiders you just need to take two steps back to "escape" from but neither are uniquely Australian hazards, and we don't even have a scorpion species with medically significant venom. As for the funnel web thing, I've lived in Sydney and the surrounding region on and off for nearly 30 years and found a total of 0 funnel webs in the house. Wandering spiders in South America are scarier to me, but I suspect someone from there might also say they've never seen any!
Just hope you never run across any yellow jackets if you’re in the Southeastern US. These little wasps look like brightly-colored honeybees from a distance, but they’re actually a hybrid between a wasp and Satan. They have been known to attack people who even get near their nest, even if they don’t disturb it. I’ve been stung by them, and their stings burn for a good 12-24 hours.
Glad you're recovering. I really like your channel, and this was another nice video on an interesting topic. It often feels like Australia's paleobiology gets ignored because of the better fossil preservation conditions in central Asia, Europe, and North America. Thanks for tipping the balance a bit. And BTW, the way you worded it made it sound like the gold coast is the whole east coast. It's not. It's just a region near Brisbane. But apart from that, nice work. Can't wait for the drop-bear video. Look up and live!
I used to collect funnelwebs and donate them for venom extraction, before there was an antivenom. Not psychotic at all! Can also vouch for the information in the video on Baru and other mekosuchines: I've excavated and prepped a lot of their fossils, and read the recent papers, and I find no errors here. (But seems you missed that we have native murid rodents making up nearly a third of the non-marine mammal species)
Thanks for another excellent educational video! Most of what I know about Australia’s nasty residents is from my dedicated viewing of Steve Irwin’s Crocodile Hunter TV show. Never missed an episode and even have the silly but entertaining movie he made. I cried when I’d heard of his untimely death. Wish I could have visited that marvellous continent and country. Too busy as a single parent to my kids and my nursing career. Now I’m just old and a grandma! 🇨🇦🖖🏻🇨🇦
Not sure if it has been mentioned but Australia has native placental mamals that are not bats, it has native mice and rats that arrived in Australia way before humans. I think the mice came around 5 million years ago and the rats about a million. They are relatively unknown and closely resemble introduced species so it can be hard to tell the difference unless very close. Unfortunately many are under threat of extinction partially due to competition from introduced species.
I just subscribed yesterday and was sad you hadn't uploaded in a few months - I'm glad you're feeling better, and looking forward to more! (Hi from Australia, btw 😜)
YOU’RE BACK!! Love to see the new vids pop up on my feed:) and take ur time with the big boi, we all love the vids and can wait as long as u need so don’t feel like there’s any pressure ❤
I’m glad to hear you’re feeling better! Thank you for this fascinating video. I bet you enjoyed Richard Smith’s wonderful four-part paleohistory of Australia, aired some years back in the US as Nova (PBS) episodes under the title “Australia: The First Four Billion Years.” (It was shown in Australia earlier under a different title - I think it was something like “A Time-Traveler’s Guide” - and slightly modified for the home audience.) If you have NOT seen this series, you must. Gratitude to your weird friend who is saving lives while risking his own by milking venom from those terrifying spiders.
I got bitten by a Sydney funnel web when I was hiking in the blue mountains and at first it felt like i had brushed a thorn but when i looked up, i had slapped my hand directly on top of this big ol wandering male spider, my first though was "well, I'm dead" but luckily i had my friends shortly behind me who carried snake bandages in their bags. they snuggly wrapped my arm and carried me back to the car where I would be taken to the Sydney hospital where I was administered 4 vials of antivenom and stayed in the hospital for 3 days, truly the most terrifying experience of my life.
You may be luckier than you think. If it was there, then it was also quite likely to be Hadronyche versuta, the Blue Mountains Funnel Web. A much larger, and more venomous species than the Sydney (Atrax robustus).
It’s worth mentioning that Megamonodontium is still very small compared to other trapdoor spiders in Australia. The 4x larger is referring to the genus Monodontium found throughout south-east Asia, which is tiny. This fossil of Megamonodontium only has a body length of 50mm or 5cm. It’s all media hype calling it a ‘giant’, when it obviously wasn’t. It’s still very interesting to find a spider fossil in Australia though.
Cattle are the only ones without wild equivalents still around tbf. Thankfully because aurochs were terrifying! Maybe bison and buffaloes, or even wildebeest, are likely to be tough analogs
Some sheep would be fine. Merino sheep are in trouble if their fleece grows beyond a certain point... everyone's seen the before-and-after pics with massively overgrown fleece where they can barely move or see; then they're sheared and "aaahhhhhhhhh! heavenly!" 🐑
not really. im not necessarily talking about complete extinction, for example horses have been on the decline for the past few million or tens of million years, now only equus remains and only in africa. i wonder if theyd have lasted in eurasia because you dont have any more wild horses and unlike the aurochs we dont know when they went extinct. species of goats and sheep could also go extinct. theres also mosquitos which, if you make this a no humans video, wouldnt exist or would be relegated to some oases in the sahel@@golddragonette7795
As an Aussie you're taught young to stay away from spiders and snakes.. But if I'm honest I'd be terrified to go camping in let's say the northern states of America!! Bears, wolf's, big cats.... that's wild
Afaik the funnel web spider is a pretty "typical" case for spiders whose venom is actually lethal to humans. Spider venom was never really "meant" for primates in the first place, so every now and then you have a species of spider whose venom just so happens to wreck unforseen havoc on us (in this particular case it causes our nervous system to have an epic freak-out). It's almost like the aliens in _War of the Worlds_ getting wrecked by our bacteria and microbes. It's a collision of two things that were never meant to be compatible.
You know what would be a really good idea for a video? Talking about prehistoric creatures that had venom. You never hear about the snakes, spiders and other venomous creatures that lived in prehistoric eras. I understand information on this would most likely be very limited, as you're hardly going to find fossilied venom... But I'm sure there is some interesting information out there on the subject.
Fun fact: the scorpions here in Australia aren’t deadly at all, with stings causing minor irritation at worst. You’re infinitely more likely to become past tense by falling out of bed
We had funnel webs in holes under the trees at the top of our driveway through most of my childhood. No issues at all and there was a time when we were catching them in bottles and taking them to school to show off! Tap the glass and watch them rear up and show their fangs! If my memory does not deceive me, and I don't think it does, this was before the anti-venom was developed and no one batted an eyelid. My mother did object to what we were doing but not because of the danger to our lives. Hell no, it was because we were using so much methylated spirit in catching them. What a waste! What you did was pour metho into the hole and wait for the spider to exit in distress into your bottle. Worked every time.
@@dondragmer2412 No, of course not! No one would have thought of doing such a thing with a seriously venomous spider back then, far less a 10 or 11 year old boy! Even today, the most thoughtful thing anyone with funnel webs up their front yard might likely do is donate them for venom extraction. Funnel webs did, and still do, just fine whether or not we wiped them out of our front garden, which we almost certainly did not!
Aussie here; can confirm that funnel webs do just rock up in your house sometimes. A couple years back I found one in my bedroom; the little fucker ran under my bed and I couldn’t find him so I just left the window open for him to get out, then went back to sleep lmao
Your voice and the way that you present everything in your videos is so much better than all of the other paleontology accounts I follow here on the tube.
Very cool! I feel like everywhere was probably so much scarier in the past. My favourite 'Scariest Australian Monster From The Past' has got to be Megalania. That guy was so cool!!
As an Australian myself, it's pretty safe here nowadays. You just got to stay away from the interior. And any water source. Oh. And the coast. And board up your house against small stuff. And don't bump the nanny state while its sleeping. And don't touch any of the trees... Or some of the grass.
If you want to do a video on the Drop Bear, look up Thylacoleo! edited to add: Thylacoleo was more closely related to koalas and possums than the quolls and devils
Y'know those drop bears are no joke mate. Though, we did manage to kinda domesticate one. Yeah we lost 7 family members in the process but now he's quite happy hanging out in the gumtrees out the back. As long as we feed him a fresh live backpacker at least once a month we don't have any dramas.
So could the funnel web venom be specifically evolved to protect them from humans? Could something like that evolve that quickly? Thats kinda crazy that their venom is so much more deadly towards a group of animals it has only been exposed to for the last 10s of thousands of years
As its starting to warm up here in Aus, we have a huge snake problem. I work in a 24hr vet clinic as a vet nurse and we've had a huge influx of emergency patients, majority have been snake bite envenomation. we've even had some snake sightings out the back of our hospital D: We had stocked up on antivenom to be ready for this summer, and while it's a life saver, not all still make it unfortunately. So always seek medical attention ASAP if you even suspect a possible snake bite!!! the earlier you get in, the greater your pets chances!
Being Australian and proud of it, but even I constantly wonder why did nature decided to throw every dangerous version of different animals down here lol
When is the Northern Territory going to get a REAL name? Calling it North Australia would be so cliché as there are already South Australia and Western Australia. My vote would be to call it Slartibartfastland in memory of Slartibartfast designing the planet in the first place for the sake of pan-dimensional hyper-intelligent mice. It's because of Slartibartfast that Australia even exists. "The quickest way to Darwin is to take the road to Adelaide." ---Old Australian Proverb
Something I think you're missing about the difference between Alligators and Crocodiles - Alligators aren't interested in you, Crocodiles will actively stalk and attack humans if the opportunity arises. Oh, and the Gold Coast is a city - it doesn't actually refer to the Eastern coastline, confusing as it sounds.
Sydney funnel web spiders DO NOT have the longest fangs. There are many tarantulas which have fangs at least double their length and I wouldn't be surprised if a big wandering spider didn't have at least comparable fangs.
Awesome video, I love the idea of a funnel web spider 20” leg diameter with 4” fangs making holes around a foot in diameter and snatching squirrels and chihuahuas that get to close.
YAAAAY!!! Welcome back!!! Yes, your videos have endless rewatch potential, but, I gotta know what happens in the Triassic episode for the complete history of earth series, and Tim tim!!! And all your other "pt 1 of 2" or more. These are endlessly entertaining, and beautifully educational!
I am reminded of a lecture from college by my invertebrate zoology professor... everyone is allergic to something, you may never encounter it, it may be something on the other side of the planet, none of your ancestors ever came across it, but it can still make you very sick.
I remember one time when I was a kid I was on holiday with my family, camping along a river. During a swim I needed to take a leak and for some reason felt strongly that land was the place to do it. But since I was barefoot I was a bit worried about snakes, ants and other creepy crawlies. So I didn't want to walk through tall grass or any significant amount of forest litter. I looked around and found a nice tree with oddly bare ground underneath it. Hardpan clay is how I remember it. This seemed ideal for my purposes. And it continued to seem ideal right up until I actually began to urinate. At that point _multiple_ 'lids' began popping open around my feet, disclosing trapdoor spiders. Some small, some medium, some big enough to set me dancing wildly around the tree with my knees reaching shoulder level since everywhere I jumped more trapdoors opened at my feet. Evil bastards. I did piss all over them during my crazed dance though. I was way too worried about my feet to stop pissing.
I've been in Australia my whole life and I've not been bitten once by a spider or crocodile. But yeah the actual number of deaths from spider bites is very low cause of anti venom and easily accessible health care.
I wonder what the death rate was before the anti-venom. It must have been interesting to be among the first settlers in Australia encountering these dangerous creatures for the first time. And think of what they could have learned about the dangers from the original Australian natives.
