WEBVTT - Prehistoric Monsters of the Deep 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:04.760 Welcome to Stuff from the Science Lab from how stuff 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:16.760 works dot com. Hey, guys, welcome to the podcast. Is 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:20.120 Alison Madama, the science how staff works dot com. And 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:22.400 this is Robert Lamb, science writer at how stuff works 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:25.640 dot com. Tell me something else, and do your kids 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:28.680 play with sea monsters in the bathtub? You're just swimming cool? 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:32.760 Not so much yet. Yeah, they got a couple of 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:35.440 fish that squired out water, which are pretty exciting. A frog, 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:38.920 it's getting a little moldy, to be honest. Nothing nothing 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:41.879 is exciting. Its prehistoric monsters of the deep though, Yes, 0:00:42.000 --> 0:00:45.199 what about you when you hit the bathtub? And then 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:48.280 the rare happenstance that I take a bath instead of 0:00:48.280 --> 0:00:50.559 a shower, I tend to only have like like a 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:53.440 like an orange soda or an orange Lacroix with me. 0:00:53.640 --> 0:00:56.520 So I'm kind of out of the plastic sea monster phase. 0:00:56.640 --> 0:00:59.760 But when I was a kid, I mean I still 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:01.840 loved giant sea monsters. But as when as a kid, 0:01:01.840 --> 0:01:03.840 I was really into them. And I had this book 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:06.080 which actually brought in today and we have in the 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:10.360 podcasting chamber with us um and it was titled The 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:15.440 Macmillan Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals, and it's 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:19.000 fabulous because it's like every other page is as like 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:25.480 a double truck spread of of these awesome prehistoric monster 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:28.480 um illustrations. I had a lot of fun going through it, 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:30.080 definitely when we were picking out the animals that we 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:33.440 wanted to feature because it's dinosaurs, and then later on 0:01:33.480 --> 0:01:36.320 it gets into prehistarting mammals that are awesome, you know, 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:39.480 because it's like giant horses and and you know, killer 0:01:39.520 --> 0:01:41.400 sloths and things like that. And then there's a whole 0:01:41.400 --> 0:01:44.880 section with with the with the sea creatures, the sea monsters, 0:01:44.920 --> 0:01:47.680 if you will, and and they're amazing, I mean that 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:51.160 the illustrations. Uh, it's several different illustrators, but a guy 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:55.480 by the name of Colin Newman did the fish and amphibians. Yeah, 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:58.360 and all the animals seem to have a slightly different personality, 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:01.240 as you pointed out, Yeah, it's like they don't get 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:04.480 me wrong there, they look very scientific. There's nothing cartoony 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:06.840 about them, but there's something about the way they're drawn, Yeah, 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:08.480 where they have kind of they seem to have their 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:10.880 own little personalities, right. The Shonnasarus, which we're going to 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:12.960 talk about in a little bit. Kind of seems like 0:02:13.000 --> 0:02:16.160 it's almost smiling. It seems Mary. It seems like a 0:02:16.240 --> 0:02:21.000 Mary marine, a Mary fat dolphin, like I kind of expected. 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:23.120 It kind of looks like you should be like dressed 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:25.960 up like a like a nineteen twenties billionaire, you know, 0:02:26.400 --> 0:02:28.960 kind of a monopoly man, like going like floating down 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:33.640 the street in a like an underwater New York. Yeah. Yeah, 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:36.800 So before we get to some of the ancient rulers 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:38.799 of the ocean that we want to talk about today, 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:41.440 who who's ruling the oceans today? Who? Who are the 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:45.560 big marine? Who the who are the rulers today? Well, um, 0:02:45.919 --> 0:02:48.360 as as anybody's ever watched Shark Week can tell you, 0:02:48.840 --> 0:02:51.079 the great white is pretty awesome. It's great white is 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:54.600 pretty awesome. And and how bigs great white get Great 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:59.200 whites can get about between twenty Yeah, it's pretty sizeable, 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:02.680 they look pretty years and they can definitely chomp down 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:06.040 on pretty much anything that gets in their path. Yeah. Well, 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:09.240 I was wondering when we're talking about great whites, Um, 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:11.040 I mean, great whites have been around for a long time, 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:12.639 so I really wanted to check on that and they've 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:15.359 been around as long as eighteen million years ago to 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:18.040 twelve million years ago, and then if you look at 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:20.880 the Great Whites ancestors, they might go back as far 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:24.000 as fifty million years ago. So it's not quite but 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:25.639 it's still that's not quite as old as some of 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:29.480 the characters we're going back like double that for for 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:31.680 the guys we're looking at, of course the other as 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:34.640 far as we're talking about sea monsters and just giant 0:03:34.880 --> 0:03:38.760 underwater creatures because obviously creatures in the sea can be 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:42.160 larger than the creatures on on the surface because of 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:44.960 you know, they're suspended in water, et cetera. And so 0:03:45.080 --> 0:03:48.560 today we actually have the largest species as far as 0:03:48.640 --> 0:03:51.560 we know that has ever existed, and that is the 0:03:51.560 --> 0:03:53.920 blue whale. Yes, and what are the measurements on the 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:57.360 blue whale. It's pretty astounding, um, seventy eight feet in length, 0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:00.920 although they have one recorded at it in six ft, 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:04.440 so that's pretty crazy. If you assume, I don't know, 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:07.520 ten ft to a building story, so that would be 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:11.440 equivalent to a ten foot building, I'm sorry, a ten 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:16.200 story building. Well, yeah, I know, I knew what you 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:18.680 were getting it. Yeah, and there and they obviously weigh 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:20.880 a ton too, as much as a hundred fifty tons, 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:23.839 and the females, of course, are larger than the males, 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:26.840 which is nice to hear sometimes. Now, one of the 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:32.240 distant relatives, um of of modern charks was the the megalodon, 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:36.680 a big tooth. Yeah, and and this one is is 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:38.720 a favorite I know of a lot of people out there, 0:04:38.760 --> 0:04:41.240 because there's actually a whole series of books, um, the 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:44.839 meg books. I've not heard of those. Yeah, it's uh, 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:47.200 forgive me, I can't remember the author's name offhand, but 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:49.320 there's a there's a series of them and there it's 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:51.800 actually I've never read read one, so the fans will 0:04:51.800 --> 0:04:53.200 have to correct me if I'm wrong in this. But 0:04:53.680 --> 0:04:55.760 there's it has to do with like there being like 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:58.560 a deep area of the ocean that's still warm, but 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:00.280 it's cut off from the rest of the ocean by 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:03.800 like a really like chilly layer. Okay, species evolving, they 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:07.080 have like isolation and they're all like running wild in there, 0:05:07.120 --> 0:05:10.360 and then scientists, you know, end up accidentally freeing them 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:13.000 and they run rampage jaws like all over the ocean. Wait, 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:14.919 was it the Michael Crichton I'm larn now, No, No, 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:17.320 it's like it's it's some of the it's another dude, 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:20.080 um and they almost made a movie out of her something. 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:22.080 But but it's one it's it's one of these where 0:05:22.120 --> 0:05:25.679 I think it involves like each book ends up involving shark, 0:05:25.760 --> 0:05:29.479 giant sharks battling other prehistoric creatures, and it's part of 0:05:29.520 --> 0:05:31.880 this I don't know. There seems to be this whole 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:35.720 like subset of fandom on on the Internet where people 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:40.040 were really into um, prehistoric sea monsters and imagining what 0:05:40.080 --> 0:05:44.000 their battles, like their Godzilla esque battles would would consist of. 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:47.760 You know which is pretty cool. Was that MTV show 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:51.440 where they used to have the different celebrities battling it 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:56.200 out in the in the ring, right, right, so Deathmatch 0:05:56.240 --> 0:06:01.400 except with yeah, except with with prehistoric monsters. Right. So 0:06:01.480 --> 0:06:03.760 let's talk about some of the characters we're gonna get 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:08.280 around today. Yeah, we're we're dealing with with some legitimate 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:13.359 prehistoric monsters here, we're shying away from the prestart sharks 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:16.560 and getting into what a lot of people would would 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:19.520 probably say like dinosaurs of the deep. Yeah, let's kick 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:21.640 it off at the Shoonosaurus. So as we were just 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:25.600 talking about let's imagine diving into the waters about two 0:06:25.680 --> 0:06:29.039 hundred and forty eight million years ago and way back. 0:06:29.080 --> 0:06:33.320 This is the Triassic Period, I believe. Yeah, So let's 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:35.840 imagine that we're going to dive into what is now 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:39.240 present day Nevada, except to then it was uh covered 0:06:39.240 --> 0:06:42.640 in water, and you might have encountered this gigantic greene 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:45.320 reptile that to my eyes, like I said before, it 0:06:45.360 --> 0:06:48.080 looks like this sort of massive, pop bellied dolphin with 0:06:48.160 --> 0:06:51.159 a slightly sharper beak as opposed to the more rounded 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:53.920 ones you might see on a bottle nose dolphin today. 0:06:53.960 --> 0:06:56.039 But the chopper beak only had teeth at the front, 0:06:56.040 --> 0:06:58.880 which I didn't find particularly scary. So I'm not sure 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:02.360 I'm going to qualify this as legitimate monster per se. Well, still, 0:07:02.440 --> 0:07:04.040 I don't know. Teeth only at the front, that's kind 0:07:04.040 --> 0:07:06.400 of creepy. You were a smile at you, that would 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.080 be It just reminds you of somebody having buck teeth, 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:13.800 you know, It's like sore back in. A gentleman by 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:16.880 the name of Dr. Semen Mueller discovered the fossilized remains 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:21.080 of what we now know as a Shonasaurus popularis and 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:26.000 Muller justice like proud looking. He's just he's a popular dude, right, 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:31.760 So what that means in Latin? I've popular a popular snosaurus. 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:34.600 I think it's what they're getting at. But sure, so 0:07:34.680 --> 0:07:37.880 Muller discovered them in this area of Berlin or what 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:41.720 is now Berlin actheas Or State Park. But the serious 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:44.440 digging didn't start until the nineteen fifties with two guys, 0:07:44.840 --> 0:07:49.000 Dr Charles Camp and Dr Samuel Wells from Berkeley, which 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:52.720 does a lot with dinosaurs, and these two gentlemen unearthed 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:57.320 about forty asaurs uh discovered in different locations throughout the park. 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:01.160 And of course, in nine the shown is source Popularis 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:05.400 achieved its place and fame. It became the Nevada State fossil. 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:08.040 So good for them. I have to admit I didn't 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:10.680 know that we had state fossils. I didn't either. I 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:13.360 also have learned something that we have state insects. Well, 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:16.000 I think I knew that, but state fossils is new. 0:08:16.000 --> 0:08:18.440 I wonder what Georges is. I don't know. I don't know. 0:08:19.360 --> 0:08:22.280 So if they shown a source belonged to the order Ectheosauria, 0:08:22.440 --> 0:08:25.760 which means a fish lizard. Okay, so if you're to 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:29.200 look at it, um, it had four paddles, kind of 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:31.760 like the flippers that you see on dolphins today, and 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:34.000 it had a fish like tail that barreled it through 0:08:34.040 --> 0:08:40.640 the water. How big is bigay roughly fifteen meters according 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:44.000 to some measurements, and that's about double the length of 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:47.120 the larger or great whites. Yeah, but that in perspective. 0:08:47.600 --> 0:08:50.480 And so that was for one particular species, the popularis. 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:53.160 And then they unearthed another species um called the I 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:57.160 believe the sicky in it sickeni insis, and that might 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:01.320 have been even bigger. So a Shinasaurus breathed air, just 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:04.360 like dolphins do, but the Shona saurs didn't lug its 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:07.040 massive body to short lay eggs. Instead, it gave birth 0:09:07.080 --> 0:09:10.480 to live young at sea like its fellow athosaurs. So 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.080 this is pretty cool. I was reading um that scientists 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:16.160 unearthed the fossil of an adult female a thesaur giving birth, 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:20.600 that the fossil record was able to capture that. That's 0:09:20.640 --> 0:09:22.880 I think that's just amazing. Yeah. I mean, it's one 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:24.680 thing if you can get one just sort of standing there, 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:26.760 but when you when you when you get like fossil 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:30.559 uh finds that involve you have birth or or or 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:32.880 you know, eggs or or like. The occasionally will be 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:36.840 like two dinosaurs duking it out, you know. Yeah, So 0:09:36.960 --> 0:09:39.920 taken together, you kind of wonder why the Athosaurus, of 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:43.000 which the Shona saurs was one, died out because there 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:47.920 are some pretty highly successful animals and the occupied, according 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:52.240 to scientists, um, the ecological niche of today's dolphins, and 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:53.959 say they're around for about a hundred million years, So 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:57.520 I would definitely say that's a that's a good run. Yeah, 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:00.360 so that's the Sinosaurus for you. Okay, I hope you 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:02.200 guys have a good picture and if you don't have 0:10:02.240 --> 0:10:04.559 a good picture of the Shinnosaurus, look it up because 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:07.240 he's he's worth a gander. Yeah, we'll have to put 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:09.360 some pictures up on our Facebook page. Yeah, there there 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:11.000 are a lot of pictures out there, so surely we 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:13.280 can find a few we can link to. So let's 0:10:13.280 --> 0:10:17.160 come over to a different order, the paura order. Yeah, 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:19.840 and this is where I mean, the other guys were great, 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:24.240 but the police sours or where it really gets awesome. Um, 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:28.120 and the one I'm gonna mention here is the Leo 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:32.599 plurid on, all right, and this guy looks This is 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:35.040 when they really start looking fearsome. This doesn't look like 0:10:35.080 --> 0:10:37.320 a fat dolphin. Let's turn the page there so I 0:10:37.320 --> 0:10:41.439 can actually gaze upon him again. Yeah, he I mean 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:45.560 this looks like something that would battle like Godzilla. Um. Like, 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:49.960 he's very very streamlined looking. Um looks kind of if 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:53.120 you've seen like a whale skeleton. You know, the actual 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:57.440 skull isn't big in bulbous, you know. Uh, that's kind 0:10:57.480 --> 0:11:00.280 of like the the overall shape going on with the 0:11:01.320 --> 0:11:04.679 with Elia Plurdon. So it's very streamlined looking, has a 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:07.920 and has this like very sort of cruel looking head, 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:13.720 big thick football player neck um streamlined body into these 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:18.800 massive flippers, and so POS believe he was probably extremely 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:22.360 maneuverable in the water and could move at different depths 0:11:22.520 --> 0:11:26.480 pretty easily, and was probably an excellent long distant swimmer. 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:31.280 And where I've actually seen some like some some computer 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:33.679 animated kind of videos where they show this guy and uh, 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:36.640 one of his relatives like just sort of like popping 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:38.560 out of nowhere and like biting the head off of 0:11:38.559 --> 0:11:42.040 another underwater creature, which is cool, and I imagine that's 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:44.840 what the end game of this was like, but but 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:47.160 I really dig the idea of of him being like 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:50.679 one of these long pursuit killers, you know, where he's 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:52.520 like he's chasing after him and he's just gonna wear 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:56.120 you down over time, which which is actually kind of 0:11:56.160 --> 0:11:58.720 like early human hunters. I mean in the sense that 0:11:58.960 --> 0:12:01.600 early human hunters did like the long pursuit of a 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:04.600 of an animal and then eventually wore it out. Right. Well, 0:12:04.640 --> 0:12:06.959 another possibility is that he could be engaged in those 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:09.839 long swims to find a mate, right, Yeah, that's true. Yeah, 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:12.079 they were. These were probably guys that covered a lot 0:12:12.120 --> 0:12:16.679 of territory. Um. Another part of that big cruel looking 0:12:16.720 --> 0:12:19.560 head he's got is he had some powerful muscles to 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:22.920 drive the teeth into the prey um. What was its 0:12:22.920 --> 0:12:26.520 prey pretty much anything it wanted because this was a 0:12:26.840 --> 0:12:30.559 this is a top predator um and those are pretty rare. 0:12:30.679 --> 0:12:34.560 Right when you think about the structure of the food chain, 0:12:34.600 --> 0:12:36.880 you've got a couple of folks sitting on top, or 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:40.040 animal species sitting on top, and then a whole mass 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:43.880 accumulating on the bottom. Yeah, Like I I like the 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:46.080 explanation of it as a as a pyramid. You know, 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:48.840 and at the bottom of the pyramid you have is 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:50.800 the thickest and that's where you have all the plant life. 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:54.040 And as you move up the pyramid you have the herbivores, 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:59.160 the omnivores, and then the carnivores. So the guy setting 0:12:59.200 --> 0:13:01.760 at the top is just like like one animal the 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:03.840 other animals. Well yeah, yeah, guy right, Well, you know, 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:06.720 I'm using guy in a very gentle sense. The the 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:09.040 animal setting at the very top of the pyramid on 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:10.680 this which I'd like to imagine being like on a 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:14.040 throne of bones, you know, like he pretty much runs 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:17.920 the show, but that whole pyramid supports him. So there's 0:13:17.920 --> 0:13:19.840 so that's That's actually one of the interesting things when 0:13:19.880 --> 0:13:22.880 we get into looking at the fossil records and these 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:25.920 like super predators and these these top predators, is that 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:28.920 there weren't that many of these guys out there compared 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:31.920 to the rest of the biomass that was ruling the 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:34.560 earth in those days. So so we have we often 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:37.760 have a lot less to go on. Um. I should 0:13:37.760 --> 0:13:40.680 also mention that the Leo Proudan this was a late 0:13:40.760 --> 0:13:45.160 Jurassic creature, so about two dred and thirteen million years ago. 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:48.000 Where have you found some of these guys. Um they 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:53.200 have shown up in uh the in eastern England and 0:13:53.280 --> 0:13:56.800 northern France. Uh you know, dating back up again about 0:13:56.800 --> 0:14:01.960 a hundred and sixty million years or so. And uh 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:04.240 oh and and this was pretty interesting too. Apparently there 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:11.200 has been some um, some misinformation about their size. UM. 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:13.600 Generally we're looking at about thirty nine feet in length, 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:16.720 but there have been a there's been like a documentary 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:21.120 or two that have have exaggerated it to eighty two feet. Yeah, 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:25.160 which is quite quite an exaggeration. And and I was 0:14:25.200 --> 0:14:27.280 reading up on this and some of the reasons get 0:14:27.280 --> 0:14:33.720 pretty interesting. There's a probably the internet's biggest UM fan 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:37.240 is this guy named Richard Forrest, and he runs POLICEO 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:40.000 sour site, which is like just to a search for 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:42.320 POLICEO source site, you'll find it and uh and he 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:43.920 has a whole section where he talks about like some 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:46.920 of these size controversies. And he said, it comes down 0:14:46.960 --> 0:14:50.720 to like two different things. On on one hand, again, 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:52.560 you don't have a lot of fossil record for these 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:56.360 big killers, uh, so you can kind of have to 0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:58.600 throw in some estimation. You know, like a lot of 0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:00.760 times you're estimating their size any way based on like 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:05.200 their jaw side. And then then also you might you're 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:07.120 you're thinking, like, all right, I have X number of 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:09.520 skeletons of this guy, but this is this is not 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:11.880 you know, the one that I have here is probably 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:15.160 not the biggest, so we can probably estimate that they 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:18.400 get maybe twenty bigger. So then you so you end 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:20.840 up saying, hey, the species can get to this length. 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:23.800 And then then also he said that if you're if 0:15:23.800 --> 0:15:25.680 you have you're trying to get funding for your study, 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:28.680 then apparently size matters, so you want to stress the 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:32.840 size of your creature, you know. Um and uh and 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:35.520 then finally he referred to something and I love this, 0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:40.560 uh a process called godzilla god He said, godzilla ization, 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:43.000 which sounds like you would want to say god zillification. 0:15:43.080 --> 0:15:45.760 But uh. At any rate, this has to do with 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:48.160 the media picks up on one of these stories and 0:15:48.200 --> 0:15:51.760 the the Yeah, like the Predator X, which we'll get 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:54.320 into you he just gets more ferocious with each media. 0:15:54.680 --> 0:15:56.960 You know. It's like like Science Daily gets it, he's 0:15:56.960 --> 0:15:59.760 pretty tough. Then New Scientists gets he's even tougher, you know, 0:15:59.800 --> 0:16:02.120 and like trickles down to finally people on the blogs 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:05.440 are just like going nuts about how crazy this dinosaur 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:09.040 is or pliosaur is um. So anyway, I found that 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:13.440 really interesting. Well to his point, to forest point, I 0:16:13.480 --> 0:16:15.480 will say that when I when we were picking out 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:18.720 the animals for this prehistoric podcast, I was checking out 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:22.560 animals based on definitely appearance, but also size. I mean, 0:16:22.600 --> 0:16:24.960 the big ones you're you're curious, you know, they kind 0:16:24.960 --> 0:16:27.560 of blow you away, um, just off the bat. And 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:30.120 then when you start getting into the different species. You know, 0:16:30.160 --> 0:16:32.960 of course they all have their own really unique adaptations 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:35.320 that are fascinating in their own right, but off the bat, 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:39.080 if something is forty two ft, definitely, yeah, that definitely 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:41.240 I thought, yeah, this this should go on the podcast, 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:44.200 you know, Yeah, yeah, totally. I mean I I tended 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:47.760 to go first on just how ferocious and mean looking there, 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:49.800 and then and then look and see how big they were. 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:52.400 But it's it's kind of I guess they went through 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:55.040 a similar thing with like with the actual like land dinosaurs. 0:16:55.080 --> 0:16:57.200 You know, for the longest, everybody loved the t rex 0:16:57.720 --> 0:17:00.600 and that was whatever was biggest, whatever was baddest, and 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:03.040 then kind of people got more into like oh, velociraptors, 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:05.479 which we've of course we did a whole podcast on that, right, 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:08.120 and now velociraptors have their very own awareness day. Yeah, 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:10.720 take that t rex. So I wonder if with like 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:14.680 with the with the the prehistoric sea creatures, it's kind 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:16.639 of like we're having the same process, but it's like 0:17:16.640 --> 0:17:19.480 a few years behind. So everybody's still up in arms 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:21.800 about the big ones. It's kind of like nineteen eighties, 0:17:21.840 --> 0:17:24.919 like pro wrestling, when everything has to be giant steroid guys, 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:27.120 you know. So it's like we're still in like, oh 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:28.959 my god, it's so big. It's like, let's look at 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:31.600 how big this dinosaur is. It's like fifty ft. No, 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:34.399 it's eighty feet. But maybe in like five years or so, 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:37.080 we'll be really into the smaller predators of the in 0:17:37.160 --> 0:17:39.440 the fossil record. Well, before we get into the smaller ones, 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:41.399 I want to tell you guys about the cronosaurs. And 0:17:41.440 --> 0:17:43.399 you guys might have heard about this one. This is 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:47.359 another ple cosaur and he was occurring in the Early Cretaceous. 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:49.760 So if you don't know when the Early Cretaceous period was, 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:53.440 that's about four million years ago for this particular guy, 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:57.040 this particular cronosaurus. So we're creeping up closer and closer 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:01.399 to the more modern seat law. Right, And this was 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:05.159 another marine reptile who's capable of reaching astounding lengths. This 0:18:05.200 --> 0:18:08.399 one clocked in at lengths of forty two ft. So 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:10.520 take a moment and think about that. We can just 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:14.119 throw these numbers around all day. Buttot again, that's that's impressive. 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:18.840 Imagine swimming at your local beach and encountering a forty 0:18:18.880 --> 0:18:25.080 two organism. That's that's pretty astounding. So the Cretosaurus has 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:27.520 been found um are fossils of the cronosaurs have been 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:30.680 found in Australia mainly it's the biggest known place asaur. 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:33.160 It had a flat topped head, and if you think 0:18:33.200 --> 0:18:36.440 of a crocodile head, that's what that's what to me. 0:18:36.520 --> 0:18:38.720 It kind of looks like it's reminiscent of a crocodile head. 0:18:39.040 --> 0:18:41.159 But it had those four flippers, and it had this 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:43.760 body that tapered off into a point. It wasn't a 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:46.800 tail exactly, didn't have a lobed fin or anything like that, 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:50.600 but just kind of tapered off. It was an excellent swimmer, 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:54.159 like the leoh plurid on that Robert just mentioned, that 0:18:54.240 --> 0:18:56.040 is a really tough word to say. Let's just say 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:58.600 like it's fellow places I haven't spelled out fanatically in front. 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:01.199 I mean I still keep tripping over it. So it 0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:03.119 had to leave the water to lay eggs. And this 0:19:03.240 --> 0:19:06.439 was really really it's only vulnerable times. It had this 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:09.960 big head, strong teeth and jaws made it very formidable. 0:19:10.040 --> 0:19:12.359 Then it's a really big head, like it looks in 0:19:12.400 --> 0:19:16.840 the illustration, it looks oversized, like it looks a little ridiculous. Right, 0:19:16.880 --> 0:19:20.199 So we're sitting in this room that's maybe I don't know, 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:25.679 ten ft by seven feet, and the preseosaur head, the 0:19:25.720 --> 0:19:29.440 Cronosaurus head I think, which just dominate this space. The 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:33.679 head alone, it's pretty insane. But if you're really interested 0:19:33.680 --> 0:19:36.520 in them, I highly recommend you go to the Coronosaurs Corner. 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:39.840 And that's a site that you've forwarded to me. And 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:43.840 what that is is the site for a museum, and 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:46.720 it's a museum in Australia, specifically the town of Richmond 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:52.640 in Queensland. And Cronosaur's Corner is part of Australia's Dinosaur Trail. 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:55.080 Did you know that Australia had a dinosaur trail? I 0:19:55.359 --> 0:19:57.480 knew they were They had some really cool fossils, but 0:19:57.520 --> 0:19:59.679 I didn't know that they had a dinosaur trail, right, 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:02.560 so only they have established a route which you can 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:05.840 go on and check out all the cool fines. And um, 0:20:06.440 --> 0:20:09.119 I was looking at the Chronosaur's site and they have 0:20:09.200 --> 0:20:12.320 all these pictures of the different fossils that people have found, 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:16.320 so apparently they might still be letting you dig and 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:18.199 and find stuff. I mean, you could come up with 0:20:18.359 --> 0:20:21.639 a Chronosaurus vertebratee or something, which I thought it was 0:20:21.720 --> 0:20:24.919 really cool. And they have a based on the pictures, 0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:28.520 they have like a giant like fake chronosaurus out front 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:30.679 of the museum that you can I don't know if 0:20:30.680 --> 0:20:32.119 you're allowed to climb on it. Look like some of 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:34.879 the photos people had climbed on it. But don't go 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:37.000 climbing on it and blame us, but it looked really cool. 0:20:37.040 --> 0:20:38.840 Get your picture made with it for sure. Yeah. If 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:41.320 we have any Australian listeners who's who've been to this 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:43.520 particular corner of the world, please send us pictures. We 0:20:43.520 --> 0:20:46.440 would love to see them. Will post them on Facebook. Yeah. 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:49.680 And Chronosaurus Corner, by the way, that's the corner with 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:52.720 a K because it's you know, for branding purposes. Yeah, 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:56.639 Chronosaurus is with the K corner KK. I don't know 0:20:57.640 --> 0:21:01.960 those Australians are always thinking, yeah, so what about the elasmosaurus. 0:21:02.400 --> 0:21:05.280 The way this guy looks, Yeah, this one's really cool. 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:09.600 This is I guess the best way to describe it is, 0:21:10.320 --> 0:21:11.919