Imagine a dinosaur so powerful that even the mighty T-Rex would have to think twice before picking a fight. Meet the Spinosaurus, the only dinosaur that could potentially take down the king of the dinosaurs. With its massive size, longer body, and huge sail-like spine, this giant predator was built for both land and water, giving it a big advantage. While the T-Rex had a crushing bite, the Spinosaurus had long, sharp claws and could outmaneuver it in the water. Some scientists believe that in a showdown, the Spinosaurus might just come out on top. It’s like a prehistoric battle of the titans!
00:00The Tyrannosaurus rex, the formidable predator, the world-known celebrity of the animal kingdom, the king of all dinos.
00:10Since its discovery in 1902, this dangerous predator has fascinated both researchers and the regular public.
00:18But despite its terrifying reputation, there were actually other beasts that could defeat the T. rex.
00:25And one of the true nemeses of this dinosaur was the Triceratops, a herbivore.
00:32But despite its plant-based diet, the dino was huge and had two nightmarish large horns and a smaller one,
00:40along with thickened bones which added to its defenses and helped protect itself from dreadful predators like the T. rex.
00:49This dino was something like proof that herbivores were no pushovers.
00:55Its formidable horns were about a foot wide at their base and tapered into mean points capable of skewering any predator,
01:03even a T. rex like juicy barbecue.
01:06The colossal skull of the Triceratops sported an enormous frill made of protective solid bone, which was topped with hornlets.
01:15From the tip of the animal's beak to the spiked rim of the frill, the head of the Triceratops could reach a whopping 10 feet in length and weigh around a ton.
01:25This gargantuan construction, the head of the dino, was attached to the body with the help of a ball and socket joint.
01:34This allowed the dino to swivel its head around with astonishing speed, brandishing its horns to scare predators away.
01:43That's one of the reasons why a T. rex that decided to attack a Triceratops was actually taking a big risk.
01:50The battle could easily go either way.
01:54Of course, the king of the dinosaur world could win and get its long-awaited feast.
01:59But just as likely, the hunted could become the hunter and end the T. rex's game.
02:04Now, how about we find some more cool and lesser-known facts about those intriguing creatures, dinosaurs.
02:15For example, dinos almost certainly did not roar.
02:20Scientists think they might have cooed instead.
02:23More accurately, they probably produced sounds in ways similar to the way ostriches boom or doves coo.
02:29You see, many modern birds use a method of producing sounds called closed-mouth vocalization.
02:37Sounds are made by inflating the throat rather than passing air through the syrinx, the vocal organ of birds.
02:44In other words, the Jurassic Park movies got it all wrong.
02:48A lot of early dino reconstructions appeared under the influence of those scary noises that we associate with modern predators, like lions.
02:57So, on screen, dinosaurs have their mouths open when they produce sounds, just like lions when they roar.
03:04But real dinos wouldn't have done that, especially not before charging at their prey.
03:09They wouldn't have advertised their presence to other animals nearby.
03:13Not when all they wanted was to have a meal.
03:16The Quetzalcoatlus was a member of the ancient group of flying reptiles, pterosaurs.
03:25And it was also the largest flying animal to have ever lived on Earth.
03:30The giraffe-sized creature had thin limbs, a startlingly long beak, and a staggering 40-foot wingspan.
03:38Researchers believe that these creatures could have also used their folded-up wings as legs.
03:43So, they probably walked on all fours.
03:47Scientists discovered the Quetzalcoatlus about 50 years ago.
03:51But they still have a tricky time trying to piece together the details of this animal's life.
03:56For example, how did it even manage to lift its ginormous body off the ground when flying?
04:02Whatever the answer is, this creature is our first real look at the entirety of the largest animals ever to fly.
04:10One of the reasons why it's been taking so long to unearth the secrets of the Quetzalcoatlus
04:15is because this creature had hollow bones that helped it to fly, just like modern flying animals.
04:23So, when you find these potato chips-like bones preserved in super hard rock,
04:28you need to somehow remove them without destroying them.
04:32And that's a really tough task.
04:34The Tyrannosaurus rex was quite a slow runner.
04:40Its speed was likely to be just about 10 miles per hour,
04:44which is approximately as fast as the speed of an average human runner.
04:48As for T. rex babies,
04:51according to hatchling recreations from the American Museum of Natural History,
04:55they were pretty cute.
04:57About the size of super-skinny turkeys and covered with downy feathers.
05:01The largest land-based dino was the Argentinosaurus.
05:09This massive animal often reached up to 130 feet in length and 69 feet in height.
05:17Considering the average blue whale is around 70 feet long,
05:21you can easily imagine just how giant that dinosaur was.
05:25Many dinos had feathers, and I'm not only talking about avian ones.
05:32The largest feathered dinosaur we know about was the Eutyranus huwali,
05:37which translates as a beautiful feathered tyrant.
05:41It was a superpedal and cousin of the T. rex.
05:45Scientists think that the dino most likely relied on its feathers to stay warm.
05:50However surprising it may sound,
05:54some of the biggest dinosaurs were actually herbivores.
05:57Let's take the Brachiosaurus and Apatosaurus, for example.
06:02These creatures were giant, but followed a plant-based diet.
06:08Now, I'm not sure if you should try it or not,
06:10but apparently, you can tell the difference between a simple stone
06:14and a dinosaur fossil by licking it.
06:17It may not sound like the most legitimate approach,
06:20but even paleontologists sometimes find themselves doing this.
06:25The thing is, if you lick a potential fossil,
06:28it will slightly stick to your tongue.
06:30That's because fossils are way more porous than stones.
06:36When dinosaurs first saw the light of day during the Triassic period,
06:40around 230 million years ago,
06:42Earth's continents were clustered together
06:45and formed one giant supercontinent called Pangea.
06:49Over the next 165 million years,
06:53Pangea slowly drifted apart,
06:55and that separated many dinosaur species from one another.
06:59And still, most of the world's dinosaur fossils are found in three places.
07:03The high-altitude badlands of China,
07:06North America, and Argentina have the largest amount of fossils,
07:10or at least easily accessible ones.
07:14In reality, most parts of the world are covered with fossils.
07:18But those located in desert-like environments are easier to find
07:22due to the lack of vegetation.
07:27Interestingly, most fossilized dino bones aren't bones anymore.
07:30The fossilization process often occurs when something gets trapped
07:35between layers of sediment or sand.
07:38For millions of years, those remnants stay there.
07:41At one point, they got surrounded by a layer of water.
07:45It replaces the original organic material with minerals.
07:48In other words, it's not the real thing anymore.
07:51It's a rock-like copy.
07:52The Triceratops boasted three giant horns sticking out of its head,
07:58but its teeth were even more fascinating.
08:01This dino had around 800 teeth,
08:04and new ones kept growing throughout its life.
08:07These teeth grew in sets of 36 to 40-tooth columns,
08:11with each column having three to five teeth,
08:15vertically stacked on one another.
08:16Some dinos had hollow bones, like today's birds.
08:22These creatures stored air in their bones,
08:24which helped them improve their breathing abilities.
08:27It made these dinosaurs lighter on their feet,
08:29and allowed them to breathe much more efficiently.
08:33The Nijesaurus replaced its teeth every two weeks.
08:37This unique creature had rows and rows of teeth in reserve.
08:41They were hidden away in its mouth,
08:43and when a set of teeth wore out, they fell out,
08:46and the next row moved into position.
08:51Dinosaurs didn't all go extinct at the same time,
08:54as soon as the asteroid crashed into Earth.
08:57Instead, the space rock likely triggered a chain reaction of events,
09:01which changed the face of the planet.
09:04Of course, it didn't happen overnight,
09:06but over the next few hundred or even thousands of years.
09:10As a result, all but avian dinosaurs went extinct.
09:16The word dinosaur came from the Greek language.
09:20Deinos means terrible,
09:22and soros means lizard.
09:25So basically, dinosaur can be translated to terrible lizard.
09:30You may object that not all dinosaurs were terrifying predators.
09:33This name might be appropriate for the T-Rex,
09:36but not, let's say, the tiny May.
09:40Rumor has it that when Sir Richard Owen,
09:42an English biologist,
09:43came up with the name for dinosaurs,
09:45he used the word terrible in a different sense.
09:49He described those ancient creatures as fearfully great,
09:52as in far larger in size than any previously discovered reptiles.
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