Edmontosaurus - Ancient Animal

[Music] the cretaceous was the third period of the age of the dinosaurs it would see the development of some of the most bizarre looking animals to ever grace our earth from the legendary tyrannosaurus rex to the largest land animals of all time today we will be looking at a more humble animal it was not the biggest or the most famous but nevertheless it was important to the earth's past this animal was edmontosaurus it sported a weird posture strange mouth and was actually very large edmontosaurus is a genus of hadrosaur dinosaurs from the late cretaceous they were some of the largest hadrosaurs and truly alien looking compared to modern animals before we talk about these fascinating animals let's talk about hadrosaurs and their evolution iguanodonts are the direct ancestors of hadrosaurs it is a clade of herbivorous dinosaurs that first appeared in the middle jurassic some members include campedosaurus dryosaurus iguanodon and of course hadrosaurids iguanodontians were one of the first groups of dinosaurs found in the best known they were among the most diverse and widespread of the herbivorous dinosaur groups hadrosaurids would first appear 86 million years ago commonly called duck-billed dinosaurs they possessed an interesting shaped mouth for feeding they were a common group during the late cretaceous period they lived in what is now asia antarctica europe and north and south america edmontosaurus was just the genus of hadrosaur that would appear around 73 million years ago interestingly edmontosaurus included some of the largest hadrosaurid species they could be up to 12 meters or 39 feet in length that is about as long as the largest tyrannosaurus rex's it weighed about 8 800 pounds or 4 000 kilograms evidence exists of much larger specimens probably somewhere 15 meters or 49 feet in length and 9 000 kilograms or 20 000 pounds in weight so some of them were absolutely massive though their size would be easily outshadowed by the largest sauropods of their time they would still be the largest land animals on earth if they were still alive edmontosaurus is currently regarded as having two valid species e regalis and eonectens edmontosaurus was a bulky animal with a long laterally flattened tail it of course also had a head with an expanded duck-like beak its four limbs were not as stout as its hind they were however long enough to stand and walk on the skull of a fully grown edmontosaurus could be over a meter long one skull even measured 1.18 meters or 3.87 feet in length their skull was triangular in shape their large spoon bill was toothless the upper and lower beaks were extended by keratinous material teeth were only present in the maxilla and dentaries interestingly their teeth were composed of six different types of tissues the number of vertebrae differs between specimens most of the back of the tail were lined by ossified tendons this sort of helped support the pure weight of the animal the forelimbs were shorter and less heavily built in the hind legs the upper arm and forearm are similar in length the wrist was simple and had four fingers providing thrust for such a large animal the hind legs were very powerful the hind feet were very hoof-like and to aid in balance the tail was of good use specimens of edmontosaurus have been found with preserved skin impressions a famous example includes the tracheodon mummy of the early 20th century it contained remnant compounds from the skin skin impressions are less known for e-regalis but a well-preserved example contains a soft tissue crest on the head edmontosaurus is thought to have been a facultative biped this means it moved mostly on four legs but could use a bipedal stance when needed he likely stood and walked around on all fours but would run on its hind limbs it is thought to have been quite fast perhaps a speed of 28 miles per hour or 45 kilometers per hour was possible some studies have found that it may have been even faster it was long thought that they may have been semi-aquatic it was found that they were not well suited for swimming in actuality swimming would have not been a good way to escape from a hungry t-rex their limbs were poor at propulsion and their tail was not able to swing back and forth very fast due to the ossified tendons edmontosaurus was a terrestrial herbivore originally it was thought that it may have had a diet similar to ducks it was thought that they fed on mollusks and crustaceans this interpretation has now been rejected instead it fed on vegetation by using its broad beak to strip off plant material scratches dominate the microware texture of the teeth this is an obvious sign of an herbivorous animal though it lived a relatively peaceful life as a herbivore the greatest predator of all time roamed the land unfortunately fredmont thesaurus tyrannosaurus rex enjoyed some hatter sore not only did they live in the same time and place an adult specimen of anactins shows evidence of a theropod bite on the tail the bones are partially healed but the edmontosaurus died before traces of damage were completely gone tyrannosaurus rex wasn't the only predator though albertosaurus and daspletosaurus are other terrifying examples edmontosaurus was a wide-ranged animal in both space and time an exceptional fossil this animal was found in 1908 it was so exceptionally preserved that it was deemed the edmontosaurus mummy the fossil includes a skeleton encased in skin impressions from large parts of the body the mummy was discovered lying on its back with its neck twisted backwards it includes the tail hind feet and the hind portion of the pelvis all the bones remained unflattened and still connected about two thirds of the skin is preserved the skin includes two different types of non-overlapping scales that were between one and five millimeters in diameter the skin is tightly attached to the bones and it is assumed that the carcass dried out before burial and ultimately fossilization the specimen classifies as a natural mummy it remains one of the most interesting dinosaur fossils ever found for whatever reason i find this animal to be very interesting it's not the biggest or the most unique but something about it looking familiar to some modern animals makes it look so cool it reminds me on something i might see on some alien planet it is another amazing animal from a bygone period in our earth's rich history thanks for watching i have an announcement to make i recently made some of the first merch for this channel youtube has a feature that allows you to easily make and sell your own clothing i designed some logos that i am proud of and i think i produced a good product as well they are the highest quality shirts that this program offers and i can assure you that you will receive a quality product i wish they could be cheaper but since it's through youtube i'm only making like five dollars off of each one but it's fine it's not really about the money i just wanted to make some cool shirts for you guys so if you like the design it would mean a lot if anyone would purchase them i'm not going to be annoying and push this on my channel a lot so don't be too worried i'm not going to turn into one of those youtubers anyways thanks for watching and i'll see you in the next one bye [Music] wow you

Channel: NORTH 02

Views: 1,189

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: dinosaur, ancient animal, documentary, north 02, trey the explainer, paleo profile, animal, fossil, evolution, dino, paleoanthropology, human evolution, science, discovery, edmontosaurus, ancient, iguanodon, hadrosaur

Id: mg4PSJeBOF8

Length: 8min 41sec (521 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 10 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Mophandel]

All dinos are metal and edmontosaurus is no exception