Just remember, there were possibly millions of dinosaurs, and we've only discovered a mere 700 skeletal remains we've fully identified and studied. That number of species doesn't compare to all the species in the time periods before that, and the ones before that. The history of our planet is over 4 billion years old, plenty of time for evolutionary traits of all sorts -- and evolution and adaption still happen to this day. On top of discovering old deceased species, we find hundreds of new species every year; of course it doesn't amount to how many we have yet to find, and how many have gone extinct in today's time period before we caused a rampant decline in species. Anyhow, now imagine the vastness of infinite space, where we have discovered clusters of galaxies -- and we've only discovered a over a mere 10 thousand planets/stars. Just an interesting thought, and there's more to these ideas.
Hmm... Would be hard to improve upon one of the greatest movies of all time but, I think that would work. Maybe there could be a fight scene between man and rodent right after Murray takes of with the truck and just before he drives off the cliff. 😂
Mahnoor Naz Mahnoor Naz I have two snakes and there’s a cap for how large they can expand around prey. For example, neither of my snakes can swallow prey back-to-front because the limbs don’t bend down against the body. A horn would be much harder to deal with than limbs. Also, the snake would have to keep its body expanded around where the horn was until it got digested enough to no longer be a potential threat to their internal organs, which would be unusual for a snake since they sort of go back to being normal snake shaped as soon as their prey has passed through that specific part of their body. It would probably also hinder their movement, thus making eating a horned rodent an overall bad choice
Of course I understand in the grand scheme of things, a few million years is nothing. But for a human being to comprehend the length of a million years is already challenging. Let's say a million years is around 50K human generations... I know who my great great grandfather was but earlier than this? No clue.....
Right? By now I'm just sneering at my screen like "You're not so tough, Mr. I use this to appeal to women. You have a spike coming out of your head, use it!"
I feel like the horns may have evolved specifically for predation by snakes. It seems like a perfect defense for being swallowed head first! Just a guess though. 🤷🏽♂️🤔
A: that would be a real big snake. B: many would have to survive the attempt in order to pass on the genes, and AFAIK snakes dont generally try to swallow live prey because most rodents have sharp claws and teeth and could easily kill a snake from the inside.
I appreciate immensely that you have closed captions for deaf and hard of hearing subscribers; it would be really neat if your acknowledgement of Indigenous territories were audio narrated, for the sake of visually impaired people who otherwise enjoy the channel.
As one of said HoH subscribers, yes! I so much appreciate the captions, especially since so few people will actually include them. I also agree that the acknowledgement should have been narrated.
That's an excellent suggestion. I love the recent addition of the acknowledgement of the indigenous territories involved in an episode. Having it narrated would be an even better idea!
I'm always happy when indigenous territories and First Nations acknowledgements are included. It happens so rarely. I also agree that narration of it would have been educational for the visually impaired.
Recognition of the indigenous groups is so great. People only know the few large names, forgetting the other groups that existed. I like learning who else lived there.
well, horned gophers will now haunt my dreams. quips aside, thank you for that acknowledgement of indigenous peoples and traditional lands. this keeps discussions and recognition going.
Thanks for including the acknowledgement of native tribes and lands. It's a good step to include that. I'd appreciate it at the beginning of the videos too, so people see it going in.
Thank you for acknowledging that fossil hunting often occurred, and occurs, on the lands of indigenous people without those peoples’ consent or recognition.
Good work on acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land on which the fossils were found. That is both respectful and a step towards reconciliation. Thank you.
Okay, I admit it, I actually laughed out loud with the 'gopher it' joke at the end! I really enjoy learning about all these animals that were such a mystery for so long, it's interesting to see how our understanding of adaptations has evolved over time.
Silly folks. They simply gained enough evolution points to spec into the horns traits. This was possibly to avoid getting bodied left and right by skunk and badger mains as well as raptor mains
Can you do a video on how the narwhal tusk evolved? I understand it’s sexual selection today but how/why did a tooth turn horizontally and protrude out of the head in the first place?
So this is where the idea of a horned rabbit (from fantasy worlds) came from. I truly enjoy learning about adaptation and evolution for storytelling's sake. There are so many crazy blueprints in the evolution lines. I love it.
PBS Eons - I love your videos. But I have to comment on your presentation here. You chose a photo of an osprey to illustrate predators from above. Unfortunately, Osprey are piscivores, so that illustration fell short.
Please discuss Darwinius (the Ida debacle from 2009) while also discussing strepsirrhine evolution in Africa and how modern strepsirrhines (toothcombed primates or lemuriforms) evolved. In other words, don't just talk about evolution of anthropoids. This is important because it demonstrates that Scala Naturae thinking is still alive in science. Too many researchers consciously or unconsciously see evolution as directional, with humans as the pinnacle.
... so I'm standing there waiting for the needle to drop. On edge to see the table turn. Then I realized that I had forgotten to plug in the record player.
I love rodents!! So much crazy chaos and crap in the world, thank you so much for everything you guys do. Your videos make my day. Wish I was wealthy and could donate.
