Fanclub Paleo Posting.

#44
The first channel I am going to shamelessly promote is The Paleo Professor.
Previously going by the name of Pangaea Productions, The Paleo Professor is quite a newly established channel on the YouTube block but is no less talented than the more established channels, which if this thread gets some interest and doesn't become as dead as this forum has been throughout this month long break, I will be happy to tell any inquisitive folk about these other channels. :catpole:

The Paleo Professor has created videos covering specific groups of extinct creatures such as the genera of Ophthalmosaurus, Estommenosuchus and Postosuchus as well as the clade Dicynodontia.

Here is his Postosuchus video for an example of this type of video.
11 minute video.

However, the series that convinced me to subscribe to his channel was his series on the evolution of early Synapsids and Therapsids, covering the rise and fall of the precursors of the mammals that ruled the Earth during the Permian period, before the rise of the Dinosaurs.
9 minute video.
11 minute video.
12 minute video.
14 minute video.

In addition to the quality paleo content, Paleo Professor's top notch editing, pleasant background music (reminds me of Mass Effect 1) and good narration make for a surely entertaining viewing experience because trust me, these different channels can have widely varying quality of narration. :catsweat:
Of course the bloke whose channel that I promoted on the very first post would delete his YouTube account..... Again..... Feck. :shame:

I just wanted to check if he might have uploaded something that I missed and I find this. :peperain:
 
#45
Something very new in its exposition to the world (2023) is the extinct whale Perucetus colossus.



It was a genus of early whale from Peru that lived during the Bartonian age of the middle Eocene.

Some infos:

The animal had an estimated lenght of 17-20.1 m and the weight calculations that were made offer a very wide range, between 85 and 340 tonnes. Perucetus could have - potentially - weighted more than a blue whale. The difficulties of determining the weight of basilosaurids have been noted.

"Based on its fossils Perucetus was likely a slow moving inhabitant of shallow waters. As for his diet, one suggestion proposes that it may have fed on benthic animals like crustaceans and molluscs that live on the ocean floor."

"The immense size and bone density both make it impossible for Perucetus to have gone on land, which is in line with its classification as a basilosaurid. Its pachyosteosclerosis is taken as a sign that Perucetus lived in shallow waters, using it as buoyancy control as modern manatees do. Given its size and weight, Perucetus could have resisted crashing waves in more turbulent waters, something inferred for the similarly buoyant Steller's sea cow."

@FutureWarrior123 @Owl Ki @Jailer
 
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#46
Something very new in its exposition to the world (2023) is the extinct whale Perucetus colossus.



It was a genus of early whale from Peru that lived during the Bartonian age of the middle Eocene.

Some infos:

The animal had an estimated lenght of 17-20.1 m and the weight calculations that were made offer a very wide range, between 85 and 340 tonnes. Perucetus could have - potentially - weighted more than a blue whale. The difficulties of determining the weight of basilosaurids have been noted.

Based on its fossils Perucetus was likely a slow moving inhabitant of shallow waters. As for his diet, one suggestion proposes that it may have fed on benthic animals like crustaceans and molluscs that live on the ocean floor.

The immense size and bone density both make it impossible for Perucetus to have gone on land, which is in line with its classification as a basilosaurid. Its pachyosteosclerosis is taken as a sign that Perucetus lived in shallow waters, using it as buoyancy control as modern manatees do. Given its size and weight, Perucetus could have resisted crashing waves in more turbulent waters, something inferred for the similarly buoyant Steller's sea cow.

@FutureWarrior123 @Owl Ki @Jailer
Aye, I heard about this fella earlier in the year. I doubt the upper weight estimates of this thing. Paleontologists kinda have a habit of overestimating a creature's size upon its initial discovery before shortly bringing it down. Lol.
 
#47
Aye, I heard about this fella earlier in the year. I doubt the upper weight estimates of this thing. Paleontologists kinda have a habit of overestimating a creature's size upon its initial discovery before shortly bringing it down. Lol.
Man, if it indeed weighted this much, it'd be titanic. Lol.

I honestly think that sooner or later we'll have some prehistoric creature outright confirmed to have weighted more than the blue whale.
 
#48
Man, if it indeed weighted this much, it'd be titanic. Lol.
I seriously doubt the weight estimates. Lol. Even the lower weight estimates are questionable. It's estimated at about 10 meters shorter than a blue whale's maximum length and comes from a family of big game predators that typically aren't even estimated to break the 10 tons mark and whatever this thing was, it is highly unlikely to have been a deep ocean filter feeder.

If you want something the size of a blue whale then you probably need to find something that lived like one. Blue whales are the size that they are for a reason. Lol.
I honestly think that sooner or later we'll have some prehistoric creature outright confirmed to have weighted more than the blue whale.
The problem is in order for it to be confirmed, you would need an extraordinarily preserved and complete fossil. That level of fossil preservation for such a large animal while still being accessible for excavation would be classified as somewhere between "highly improbable" to "flat out miraculous". :catsweat:
 
#50
The problem is in order for it to be confirmed, you would need an extraordinarily preserved and complete fossil.
Really? I believe most of the confirmed evidence we have for the largest shark (megaladon) stems from size analysis of the teeth and jaw fossils and comparing it to the modern day ones. I would assume we could do something similar with other species by comparing the skeletal components, even if it's just a portion.

Just my assumption based on what I know lol.
 
#51
Really? I believe most of the confirmed evidence we have for the largest shark (megaladon) stems from size analysis of the teeth and jaw fossils and comparing it to the modern day ones. I would assume we could do something similar with other species by comparing the skeletal components, even if it's just a portion.

Just my assumption based on what I know lol.
Nah, Megalodon's size is not a confirmed deal. The most common size estimate of about 16 metres is based on the assumption that Megalodon was basically an upscaled great white shark, even belonging to the same genus of Cacharodon. Lo and behold, it is no longer considered a Cacharodon now but is considered a member of Otodus instead, meaning that Megalodon and Cacharodon last shared a common ancestor in the Early Cretaceous, so the upscaled Cacharodon model doesn't work as well anymore.

I have seen estimates for Megalodon range from 10.5 to 20 metres long and with disagreements over which modern shark it would most closely resemble. The fact is, we don't know the proportions of this thing because we only have teeth of it. For all we know, Megalodon may have had disproportionately large teeth due to its lifestyle similar to how Livyatan (an extinct macroraptorial sperm whale) has much larger teeth than its (estimated to be) similarly sized living relative (sperm whale teeth are between 4-8 inches long, Livyatan teeth are 14 inches long).

There have been a few instances where an extinct animal having a disproportionately large body part resulted in mistaken size estimates. Sarkastodon was once thought to be the largest mammalian land predator of all time before it was realised that Oxyaenids posses disproportionately large skulls. A genus change also affects size estimates such as Andrewsarchus (known only from a partial skull) going from an exceptionally large Mesonychid to a reasonably sized close relative of Entelodonts (known for their disproportionately massive skulls).

All this is to say that any estimates involving scrappy partial fossils really are just educated guesses at best. :catsweat:
 
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#53
@Owl Ki

Interesting. Very informative stuff.

But also the child side in me would be immensely disappointed that such a creature might not have ever existed in such a capacity

:risitasad:
Aye, the problems with trying to find something larger than a blue whale are;

1) Such a creature may not have ever existed and the blue whale may truly be the largest animal of all time.

2) Such a creature may have existed but it never left any fossil evidence behind. If the creature was say a giant filter feeding shark, its skeleton would have been made of cartilage, a material that rarely fossilises.

3) If its remains did fossilise then said remains could be unreachable or have been destroyed by the elements.

4) If it is only partial remains then any estimates would be educated guesses.

5) Since the term "largest" is determined by the weight of an animal then even with a mostly complete fossil, there would still be guesswork since soft tissue from deep time rarely preserves (best you would get is an imprinted outline surrounding the skeleton).

Pretty much the only way for an extinct creature to be confirmed larger than a blue whale would be for it to have a mostly intact skeleton, be obviously significantly larger than a blue whale and have a skeleton that is clearly evolved to bear gratuitous weight.
 
#55
@Owl Ki

Well from what I’ve heard, the Blue Whale should be close to the limit of what a living creature could reasonably reach in size, based on current understandings of biology. We probably won’t ever find a specimen that’s substantially bigger anyway.

Never say never though, I guess.

I need to touch up on my childhood interest in paleontology again lol.
I think the main issue is that a creature like that would need so much food to survive lol, it's absurd.
I mean blue whales have to commit genocide on krills and other animals just to be satiated for a day.
 
#57
@Owl Ki

Well from what I’ve heard, the Blue Whale should be close to the limit of what a living creature could reasonably reach in size, based on current understandings of biology. We probably won’t ever find a specimen that’s substantially bigger anyway.
I think the main issue is that a creature like that would need so much food to survive lol, it's absurd.
I mean blue whales have to commit genocide on krills and other animals just to be satiated for a day.
Pretty much this. Moth Light Media did a video on how big animals can get and the main size restriction is basically dietary requirements.
8 minute video.
It probably takes another filter feeder to match a blue whale in size. :catsweat:
I stumbled upon this. It was an interesting read. The animal was named Wakayama Soryu, the "blue dragon". A very unique individual which could mark an important point in research.


https://www.earth.com/news/blue-dragon-terrorized-the-pacific-seas-72-million-years-ago/
Ooohhh, that's a good article. Mosasaurs with a dorsal fin is new. 👀
 
#59
Pretty much this. Moth Light Media did a video on how big animals can get and the main size restriction is basically dietary requirements.
8 minute video.
It probably takes another filter feeder to match a blue whale in size. :catsweat:

Ooohhh, that's a good article. Mosasaurs with a dorsal fin is new. 👀
That's another thing, there were creatures like Mosasaurus as well.
If an animal as big as the Blue Whale could have existed back then, it'd have some competition and I'm also not sure if there would have been enough food back then anyway.
Though I'm not certain about that. While I do know a lot about animals, I'm not well versed on dinosaurs/ancient animals specifically.
 
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