Why Did Pterosaurs Have Head Crests? 

It needs to be said that your word choice is great, presenting info in a ‘so far as we understand’ manner as opposed to portraying it as undesputed fact. A very underrated youtube channel for sure.

"its head resembles seth" - shows an image of ANUBIS

The phenomenon with peacocks is called Countersignal evolution. Where a trait becomes exaggerated to the point of detriment as a way to show that even despite the obvious downside, the animal is so fit and strong and a good potential mate, that they can thrive even with that handicap.

Imagine a Nyctosaurus diving off the shore for fish, then using its crest to sail back to the beach while it floats in the water

Sometimes it hurts to know there is no way for us to study and observe these animal and, experience their beauty and majesty 😢

Love how you frame the restorations of these animals against a natural environment. It's a small detail, but it really helps to actualize these creatures.

Maybe it's one of those "eyes on the back of your head" things to ward off predators. With forked ones looking like open mouths. Like dots on the back of ears on animals to seem like eyes, or face-like patterns on butterflies wings.

A childhood friend of mine once said when playing with my dinosaur figurines that it was the brake to make the pteranodon slow down. Thank you for making this fond memory pop back into my head!

Any days a good day when several of your favorite RU-vidrs post a video on the same day that is generally entertaining

I've heardan hypothesis that ramphorynchoids were outcompeted and disappeared because of the evolution of birds, rather than pterosaurs, because small pterodactyloids disappeared too, leaving only giant ones, wich is often a refuge niche for endangered groups.

"Why Did Pterosaurs Have Head Crests?" It was so they could pick up local radio stations 8-))...

If moving their heads to look around would have obstructed their ability to make their heads function as rudders, what if their eyes had the ability to move independently, like those of a modern day chameleon?

When it comes to mating displays and their large, impractical size; it's their ability to be successful *despite* their massive handicap that is so impressive to mates. A peacock that is strong and competent enough to create a more dazzling plumage and stay alive is a very desirable mate

The dimensions of some pterosaurs seem so strange and extraordinary and look more likely to be a rendering of a crypto zoologist’s fever dream than an actual living and breathing creature. The optics alone greatly motivates my curiosity and a wanting to know more. Your help with that endeavor is much appreciated sir 🤓👍

I have always loved pterosaurs because of their unique abilities and strange looks. Awesome video! May i suggest the therapsid lineage the Anteosauridae as a topic for perphaps a future video of your's?

I accidently found your channel out of nowhere and for the first time in a long while, I gotta give the RU-vid Algorithm some creds. Interesting topics, information about animals I've never really cared about and now find more interesting than ever and it really brings out the nerd in me! And as a big plus, your voice is amazing! 10/10 in every aspect! The philosophical questions and themes about evolution, purpose and niches in nature (and modern society) are also a great addition. Suddenly 2 million years doesn't seem that long ago anymore, even though it really is quite a while.

Nothing like a fresh moth light media video to start the weekend, love it

Because they needed to store their toothpaste.

If I learned anything from Revelation Space it's that head crests are essential for the prevention of overheating in hyper-augmented brains.

Seeing as crest size appears variable within a species, is it possible the crest may have been a seasonal feature like antlers in deer?

I've been in and out of the hospital all week. I really needed this. Thank you.

Seems to be another great one; I always get a bit excited when you upload a new video.

Cause the Ladies thought it perttee...

I've been waiting on this 😁

Your videos are so good and addictive. I hope more people get to see your awesome channel. NEVER stop doing videos, I love them

Fascinating. Thanks for making such great videos.

very impressed with how well this was presented.

This channel is wonderful. Entertaining and relaxing. Thank you for the videos.

Pterosaurs are some of the most criminally underrepresented prehistoric animals in all of media. Like, they were some surreal creatures. Not simply flying lizards

I feel that some Pterosaurs have head crest are the same way that some bird have head crest too Also this was a great MLM video,also I wish you a good day.

Favourite channel on the platform, thanks for the great content :)

Fascinating video. Truly something that expands ones knowledge. Thank you.

As always, quality stuff!

thanks for the video mate

Hopefully someone else reading this relates to the feeling of clicking on a Moth Light Media thumbnail thinking they’re rewatching a video, only to find that it’s new and was just posted. What a treat! Well that was a fun 8 minutes. Back to rewatching all your videos until the next one comes out.

Such a great informative channel

That's more pterosaur information than I've ever gotten at one sitting before. Nicely done! Cheers.

Great video!!!!

Nice video! Thanks a lot!

this is amazing you read my mind about what topic i love XD i would love a video about the sauropods

This is a very interesting video! I never thought about this before!

7:24 I've never seen an elephant rub their eyes this is so cute

Tapajara is the first thing I think about head-crested pterosaurs

Ooooooh yea!! Love these videos!!!

I love your videos

Nyctosaurus, Pterorhynchus and Tupandactylus all have crests that show a striking similarity to boat sails! This may have only helped them a little bit, because of leeway, while in the air, but while in water, with some part of the body, like the beak or the breast bone or the feet acting like a keel, such a sail would have aided the animal in gaining enough forward speed to take off from water.

I feel like it helps when on the ground, some predators don't attack when they think you're facing them. It could just be to mimic their beak on the back to deter them. At least the one's that have the crests back there anyways.

I just found this channel and I fucking love it, youtube needs more of this

With Nyctosaurus, my main question isn't about the crest, but the fact it didn't have the three hand fingers I see on every other pterosaur. I wouldn't be surprised if Nyctosaurus touched the ground to lay eggs, raise chicks and absolutely nothing else.

Interesting watch

When it comes to flying, a rudder is not used for turning, but for for stability. Birds accomplish this by twisting their tail feathers. The head crests do make sense as rudders. The different size and shapes can be explained by how maneuverable the pterosaur needs to be. The early pterosaurs had large crests because they could only look forward. Later pterosaurs had a specialized region of the brain that allowed them to turn their heads in many directions without getting dizzy so they could make do with smaller crests

Interesting video

When at sea and in the Southern Ocean watching Albatrosses using the ground effect to glide into the troughs of rolling swell they would dip their heads super quick and back a little after picking up small fish, which makes me believe that Pterosaurs head crest was mainly a counterbalance.

I love your videos and i would love a video on the evolution of urban mesopredators like raccoons possums and skunks!

I always love seeing pterosaurs with crests bigger than pretty much every individual part of their body.

1:05 I love this reconstruction showing the pteranodon as a sort of sea bird

It has been suggested that pterosaurs may have been able to swim under water, or at least dive into the seas, (at least some of them), to catch fish or other prey. If this were so, might some of the crest shapes help in swimming? Wind tunnel tests have been made, but what about water studies, like those testing submarine designs. Has anyone tried this? I, for one, would be very interested in the results of this study, or studies.

Among the crested pterosaurs, my favorites are Tupandactylos, thallassodromeus and tapejara wellnhoferi. Although the crest of the tapejara is very small and bony, I still like it ✌🏾

Remember guys always carry a bola just in case some dude tries picking you up

Hi from Brazil

Awesome work, please do a video on pseudosuchians

Okay, but why are you showing a profile of Anubis instead of Seth?

Pre-watching: I always figured it acted like a stabilizer in wind and water. Like on an airplane or on a kayak

It's the best way to showcase their aerial superiority.

Yeeeessss new video

0:53 hyper realistic Pterosaur ❤️👍

Quality content. Don't really have anything else to add.

love the work, would love to see you do an evolution of bioluminescence

I have a theory. If these animals flew around the seaboard, the wind may be blowing rather fast much of the time. What if these crests acted like a keel on a boat or a dorsal fin on a shark to keep the animal stable in high winds? It might help the animals from accidentally doing a barrel roll while maneuvering though the air. Airplanes have a high tail for that reason.

I love this channel because of the narrator’s soothing tone, no music, decent visuals.

It could be that they used it, besides attraction display, as hearing device and cooling. It could help to locate food source and communicate the messages over long distances with display flights. Hearing could help with escaping predators that are lurking over night.

Nice video. I've heard of the rudder theory and the idea of crests being used for display. But speaking of the Pteranodons you spoke of with the tiny crests, could those be youngsters? Could they have been born with small crests and as they grew they got longer?

Fascinating! BTW, that pointer on the map is not pointing to Canada.

I'm subscribed and have notifications on but I didn't see this upload on my feed :(

Crests are a hug aerodynamic nightmare, they act as a front rudder which is an incredibly bad idea as turning the head would push the head backward because the airflow would push against the crest. Personally I believe the more elaborate sail-like crests would require the pterasaur to keep there head still while flying at speed and could only use there eye rotation to look around.

The crests couldn't be totally dysfunctional in flight, and not when catching prey like fish, for example. A rudder for cruising, perhaps, temperature regulation, and/or managing headwind resistance? The head turn is probably no major issue if you have eyes on both sides.

"Specially the crest of pterosaurs But what was its purpose" Evolution has used the crest to eventually have a significant meaning in courtship. The crest wasn't a "rudder" but instead was needed as a built-in balancing stabilizer, to the head and beak while in flight.

hey! I should name my jack russell terrier Thalassy! He fits the name! GREAT VIDEO!

The crests remind me of the back fin of sharks and dolphins

I love your channel but please make playlists

I love these guys and think that the Crest is for balance unlike birds today that have tail feathers I guess? Great video

The head sail would help fly against the wind giving a huge benefit and options .

Can you do a video on what happened before the cambrian??

Found this at 3am, i am thankfull

One possiblity could be that if snapping at something in mid air was commonplace, the crest might've functiond as a way to quickly whip their head and neck around using aerodynamic forces. I don't completely like this explanation though. Particularly seeing as raptorial adaptations are otherwise not evident. Perhaps in aquatic species, they could've used this sail as, well, a sail, allowing some form of unpowered locomotion while floating on water. Again I'm not entirely sure this would make much sense.

It’s where their laser guns were stored . . . Duh. Btw i love this channel

King: that’s how dinosaurs used to hunt in the olden days!

8:00 "It's an older code, sir, but it checks out."

I might have never gone outside if the internet and your website had been in existence. This is some fascinating information. I’m sure I would have taken another path in life. No regrets .... Just saying ... thank you.

I mean, a giant head ornament is a pretty common archosaur solution for "I am a mature animal, please mate with me."

Maybe a big vertical wing like the head crests would help in a soaring bank turn, allowing them to roll fully sideways without stalling.

This is why "Survival of the fittest" is such an overwhelming simplification

Great video! I’ve never liked the way Pterosaurs are depicted, with their heavy heads sticking far foreword like a flamingo or other modern long necked birds. I’ve often wondered if they curled their necks back so that their heads could rest on top of their bodies, between the wings. I feel this would be more balanced for flight. If this is true, the Pterodactyl type crest could have laid flat along the spine, supporting the head more, and possibly reinforcing the neck for diving into the water. But no doubt what ever it’s original purpose, eventually it became a sexual display.

5:15 My Favourite ❤️

It appears for the most part that if they have a crest, they don't have a finned tail

These videos are amazing! Its a shame this channel doesn't get the amount of views it deserves. Full of information and without the pointless filler to pad out video length. Sorry if I'm not making much sense, just incredibly tired and can't sleep right now.

Can you please do a video on the evolution of crustaceans

One thing a crest would've helped with is making quick, fast turns or maneuvers, this would've helped if they hunted other flying animals, a head crest would help then turn very fast to help catch another flying creature using evasive maneuvers

Can You Make A Video About Giganotosaurus?

Hi! It may just sound like a very odd hypthesis, but given the size of these body extentions, it would be very strange they wouldn't have any aerodynamic effect. Many bird's sexual displays can be inflated, or extended, so that they can be retracted during flight, and it seems very odd the pterodactyl 's appendages wouldn't follow the same evolution, or that some species wouldn't have lost this appendage if it didn't bring any flight characteristics improvment at all, at least due to competition between pterodactyl species themselves. Which could mean that they actually improve the flight characteristics. Since they don't have a tail, they behave mostly as a flying wing, but as far as my knowledge goes, those are prone to adverse yaw during flight, which is an unstable condition generated by a turning motion that could quickly degrade into a spin. A fair part of this phenomeom seems to be due to the fact that the wing at the inner side of the turn radius blows less air than the other one. A configuration which could have been common for such animals who probably used to circle a lot due to their predatory behaviour, or simply to catch thermals and keep their altitude raising effortlessly. Now, having a vertical wing added to the airframe could potentially compensate this adverse yawn effect, instead of a tail: because as the animal leans to is inner side wing to turn, there is not one wing, but two wings now, due to the crest, the second one compensating for the loss of lift of the first one. With such a appendage, it would be rather easy to prevent or control a spin, would the animal want to dive to attack its prey. Another aspect that comes to mind is that since the eyes seem to be facing the sides of the skull, it would mean the animal would need to turn it's head to glance at the ground in search of a prey (if not already spinning). This would result in an asymetric airframe, with quite probably a vortex effect from the crest's tip which may drastically affect le wing behind of it, preventing it from sinking/losing lift, especially if the animal is making circles within a thermal in search of a prey. Now, that's just full of suppositions, but i think there's a great deal to understand from the aerodynamic implications of this anatomy. Have a nice day :)