The Fauna of Hateg Island

Islands are places on earth where life can truly experiment and two animals that were once small can become large and large animals can become significantly smaller islands are also a place where whole new genera can come to be notable examples including the islands of New Zealand and Mauritius were entirely new organisms had a chance to evolve and to diversify leading to islands being hotspots in terms of biodiversity this is no different throughout distant time and in the Mesozoic there have also been cases of dinosaurs and other organisms responding to the changes in habitats and lack of large competition nowhere else is this more apparent with hawks egg island in what is now Romania where some truly fascinating animals roamed as well as the unique fauna of the island the islands geologic history and discovery is just as important as these factors which all come together to make a very interesting landmass during a much of the Mesozoic Europe was largely made up of a series of islands which haxe egg was one of many and has been estimated to have been around 280 thousand square kilometers around the same size as the modern island of hispaniola the island existed from the Cinemania to the massed rickety in ages and was formed mainly through tectonic upheaval during the early Alpine orogeny which itself was caused by the collision of the African and Eurasian appliance the climates of hawks egg islands from the end of the Cretaceous was subtropical with an average temperature of 20 to 25 degrees Celsius experiencing marks rainy and dry seasons although the plants life remained tropical in nature carbon isotopes indicates dry woodland conditions which does seem contradictory between the seasonally dry climates and tropical plant species although this can be explained by the fact that tropical plants can thrive in a seasonally monsoonal environment as long as they have access to sufficient amounts of water year-round and the Hawks egg environment was dominated by braided rivers and lakes the island was likely located 200 kilometres from the nearest land mass and was surrounded primarily by a deep marina basin and much of the surrounding islands and land masses which were instead surrounded by shallow seas Franzen obscure a man who himself had a remarkable history too large to be covered in this video was the first to discover the remarkable fauna of the island and described ten vertebrate taxa from the region including dinosaurs crocodiles and turtles of which six are still currently recognized as valid between 1897 and 1929 he made a series of notes and papers on the fauna and noted that many of the dinosaurs he had found were more primitive and smaller than what was found in neighboring regions recognizing this he attributed to these animals to have belonged to an isolated island landmass were separated from the more competitive mainland and with limited resources animals gradually became smaller and smaller over subsequent generations nopsi called his theory the insula theory more commonly known as the island rule where as mentioned animals can become smaller over time to adapt to the lessening of resources this had already been noted in the many species of Prebys Cardiovascular was or swimming from the mainland to the islands although this was the first known case in dinosaurs despite this though for years many experts doubted his claims suggesting instead that's many of his findings were merely that of juvenile animals and the study of supposedly dwarf toxic island dinosaurs was interrupted for many decades until being a resumed in 1977 where gradually more and more people began to explore the formations since then fieldwork has revealed a great array of extinct animals currently including a 56 taxa from all vertebrates classes since the days of nops kur up until today many discoveries have revealed that hats egg was filled by many animals found nowhere else in the world and the diversity of these animals is surely the selling point of the formation one of these animals was too small sauropods are known as Maggie Rowe Soros a sauropod belonging to the clade titanosaur iya that us around sick meters along and around a ton in waves for the largest of specimens was among one of the smallest of its group McEvoy Soros continues to require more refined anatomical revision but it has been supported as being closest to the controversial repeater Soros clades which includes the basal repeater Soros nemegt Oh Soros and trigonis horas which contains a mix of early and late cretaceous taxa and as apparent from surviving up until the KPG boundary outlasted many of its older relatives numerous explanations as to why this is have been brought up over the years whether animals became stranded on the island after sea levels rose swam to the island from a nearby region or were episodically connected by land bridges with the rest of the European land masses is still undergoing although it is evident that there must have been some communication with the mainland earlier in the Cretaceous and once on the island continued to survive while many of their relatives declined or became extinct the remains of at least 10 individuals have been recovered with the holotype consisting of a set of vertebrae and caudal vertebrae as well as dorsal elements of the skeleton have been found although a skull is not yet known due to preservation of biiss fossil eggs from the region have also been attributed to this genus and remarkably some of them have preserved embryos inside of the eggs with one showing evidence of doom or armoring which are known as osteoderms which indicates that dermal armor had a wider distribution across these elates cretaceous sauropods as mentioned earlier the small size of these animals under the assumption and that's they were fully grown was debated upon and many disagrees however the debates was finally put to rest when a detailed study of bone growth patterns through histology published in 2010 supported an OPS cos original hypothesis that Maggie Roe Soros and similar animals were indeed small even when fully grown the histology or so revealed that smacky Roe Soros had introduced growth rates likely down to a lack of predation and this means that they may have been able to live longer than their mainland relatives although they did have a high metabolic rate another organism that shows evidence of insular dwarfism is a basal hadrosaurid known as tell mater Soros an animal of around five meters in length and around half a ton in weight like Maggie Roe Soros an examination of the microstructure of the bones revealed that the biggest specimens were indeed adults even though they were much smaller compared to their mainland relatives like magaru Soros again tell matter Soros occupies a basal position in cladograms and isn't a fact at the most basal hadrosaur being a sister taxon to you hadrosaur iya this position so low in the phylogeny of the group is unexpected for a maastricht in hadrosaur and places tell matter Soros phylogenetically below hadrosaurid from the Santoni in' and companion of north america and asia therefore introducing a minimum ghost lineage of some 15 million years or more the teeth of tail matter Soros are also unique compared to its relatives as its teeth retain features found in juvenile animals the maxillary teeth of tell matter Soros are narrow diamond shaped and equipped with a single centrally placed Ridge most like the juvenile conditions seen in non hadrosaurid Iguanodon Tian's but also similar to the typical maxillary teeth of more derived hadrosaur ins the most fascinating discovery attributed to these animals is a remarkable case of paleo pathology in a juvenile animal which bears a non cancerous tumor called an amyloid blastoma on its lower jaw the reason for its significance is that before this discovery amyloid blast homers were only known from modern imel's including humans and some reptiles the discovery in an amble Oblast Homer in a dinosaur gives evidence that the development of benign tumors is a basal characteristic and not just a relatively modern condition it is unlikely that's the tumor caused to the animal any serious pana during the early stages of development as like in humans the animal was quite young when it died as like in humans the tumor doesn't begin to negatively affects the organism until later life and the animal was quite young when it died based off of its size meaning the tumor didn't have enough time to contribute to the organisms although it could have affected its overall feeding a dinosaur that was likely a dwarf as well was the unique Iselle Moxa's a genus of Raptor Dante's ornithopods that contains two species being at the small of robustus and shiki purim initially classified as the species Mach Laden robusta in 1899 by Franz nops ker before being reclassified by him in 1915 as erupted on robust M this name it was then corrected to rabbit on robustus by George olschewski and in 2003 the species was once more reclassified this time under the type species Sal Moxa's robustus zalmoxis robustus found on hats egg island was around 2.5 meters in length and an as-of-yet unnamed species could reach lengths of two point two niner meters zell Moxa's is a comparatively more robust animal than its precursors and more derived relatives and even among the already unique hats egg island animals Sal Moxa's is even more of a basal taxon when compared to other related fauna in a cladistic analysis conducted in 2003 it was found that the two species of a cell noxus were closest to rabbit Adhan and comprised the family rubbed it on today a sister clade of Iguanodon Tia confirming a long-held assumption that Iguanodon Tian's were primarily from the early cretaceous and this implies a ghost 2 lineage of around 73 million years connecting Late Cretaceous Arab d-don't aids with their closest early cretaceous relatives this indicates that in this case sal Moxa's is not uniquely primitive two hats egg island but the whole ornithopod fauna in late cretaceous europe appears to be relic shaw whereas throughout the rest of the world hadrosaurs dominated the rest of the northern hemisphere likely due to Europe being largely separated from much of the surrounding land masses another notable onethis skin discovered around the region was the small new dose orhid strewth a source one of the smallest of its group known stru theose Oris has been estimated at around 2.2 meters long and like so many of its contemporaries was also quite basal the basal position based on its anatomy and other characteristics results in a similar Longo's lineage around 55 million years or possibly an extended one as its sister taxa are late jurassic or possibly middle jurassic in age the generic name of strewth you Sora is derived from the new Latin stree Co which means off the ostrich which was given based on the bird-like morphology of the animals braincase the back of the head didn't appear very reptilian to initial describers as it was low compact fused and convex in a curve towards the skull roof and quite unlike a more typical reptilian skull as time went on it was found that many dinosaurs shared this feature and in Udo saurons likes to theo soros it was a convergently evolved trait from preserved Accio domes it is evident that strew thea soros still had an evolutionary function for its dermal armour that's being afford offending against predation which as we'll see later would have been a very useful against a known top predator of the island dinosaurs are of course not the only fauna to have developed in a unique way on hats egg as their relatives pterosaurs and crocodilly morphs also went through their own unique developments one of these animals was a lloyd episode COS precedence a species of the genus which showcases the ones extraordinary diversity of crocodilly morphs alloyed episode coos like mini lights cretaceous crocodilly morphs had a relatively small body size compared to live in crocodilians with the largest specimen of being around 3 meters in length fossils from the four species of the genus have been found across Europe including Spain Romania and France with the type species our de pursue cos precedence being the species found on hats egg and been quite the interesting animal although the shape varies between species a letup asuka's had a short flattened and rounded skull being the most apparent in precedence although other species also possessed a more typical middle snouted skull this shortened skull implies that these animals would have been able to tackle larger prey than animals with longer more fragile skulls being able to better hold down struggling prey with their more compact and powerfully built muscle indicating that they could have preys on juvenile dinosaurs and other animals in the region and - given that many of the dinosaurs on the island were dwarves meant that our dapper soukous would have been a formidable predator pterosaurs were also a notable part of the islands ecosystem and being able to fly could effectively travel throughout the European archipelago and on hats agate they were especially defining this is Nomura parents with the ever imposing hat sea copter eggs the largest known a predator to have lived on the island this pterosaur was a member of as dark a day a remarkable family of pterosaurs that with their long legs and enormous necks and heads were most comparable to modern-day stalks for using on a wide variety of animals and their carcasses whether they be small reptiles birds or even dinosaurs unfortunately hats adopt Eric so like many other pterosaurs are known from little when it comes to remains although what we do have can still tell us a loss about these animals and their anatomy and behavior the holotype consists of two fragments from the back of the skull as well as the damaged proximal pass of a left humerus additional remains that have been attributed to the genus over the years includes part of a mandible scapula coracoid and femur which while little still gives a glimpse into this remarkable pterosaur the bones attributed to the pterosaur were once considered so massive that they were initially thought to belong to a theropod dinosaur but it was only through closer examination that's their true identity could be fully revealed from comparisons with other as dark id's capsicum taric's was found to have been a truly massive animal likely having a wingspan of around 10 to 12 meters making it one of the largest animals to have ever flown on occasion arguments have been made to suggest that Hudson optics and other related to giants as dark ID's that's at the size of a giraffe would have been incapable of flights and that they would have been a flightless this however has never been a much of a controversy - pterosaur researchers as although these animals would have spent a great deal of time on the ground as we'll get into it doesn't mean that they weren't capable of flights the anatomy of pterosaurs in a pod tequila as dark eads is extraordinarily adapted for flight with their tiny torsos hollow bones and interior air sacs meaning that's they weighed very little and their skulls while indeed massive and as big or bigger than a person was also incredibly light and their aunt orbital opening and nasal opening was merged into a single large opening called the nazo ant orbital finestra meaning that's their seemingly top-heavy head's weren't so heavy after all this meant that even hats adapter equated just 200 to 250 kilograms despite being at the heights of a giraffe to get themselves into the air was also a remarkable fees in that's using their powerful four limbs they would have been able to launch themselves from a standing position and into a flighted one through a quad to launch this is similar to bats which also been quadrupedal employed the same strategy a modern analog which is a key example of how even the largest pterosaurs would have taken to the air the avian skeleton has two large girdles for limb muscles and enlarged shoulder and chest region for flights muscles as well as an enhanced pelvic region to anchor pail for handle and launch muscles in contrast pterosaurs have only one large limb girdle being their shoulders which in hats adopt erics would have had space for 50 kilograms in their pectoral region a value appropriate for initiating flight in the animals this form of locomotion is the far more economic use of muscle mass as the same muscles that's power flight can also initiate launch whereas in birds they have to allocate muscles into both their legs and wings the former of which become useless when in flight the quad launch allows for pterosaurs to have smaller torsos and a lighter legs enabling pterosaurs to reach such unprecedented sizes whereas birds max out at wing spans of 5 to 6 meters and masses of 22 to 40 kilograms in the case of peleg or natha's back to hetsig Optics being in as dark 'add was already quite unique but differences in its skull and neck length compared to other as dark id's meant that this pterosaur was really something the skull of hat Sagat Eric's was interestingly shorter and more robust than other as dark heads with the large ridges indicating strong and muscular attachments and has been estimated to have been around 10.6 meters in length by comparing the dimensions to other giant as darkened cervical remains and to the more completely known necks of small attack sir it was found that the neck of hats adopt Eric's would have been around 1.5 meters which sounds impressive until you've realized that the much smaller 4.6 meter wingspan of the as darkened Quetzalcoatlus spur has a neck of equal size while on the contrary the holotype server core of Ehrenberg iyanya which would have had a comparable wingspan was estimated to have an echo length of 2.65 meters this would have meant that Hansen octoroks would have been shorter than these other giant pterosaurs although with its more compact and powerfully built snake would have been 10 times stronger than Aaron Bourgogne when he compared through a series of strength assessments this implies a vastly different neck function that than compared to other pterosaurs and because of this made Hopson gotrocks an absolutely formidable predator from all of this it is apparent that Hudson gotrocks was built more to withstand higher stresses around its neck and head and this suggests that according to pterosaur experts Marc Whitten hat sea copter exceed be imagined as an imposing a mix of a Shoebill stork a ground hornbill and the Terminator through this hat Sagat Eric's has been interpreted as being able to bring down far larger prey items than watch their relatives could being able to violently forage for food with quick and remarkably powerful strikes being able to bludgeon even some of the larger animals of hats egg such as zalmoxis Tomatis or asunder even juvenile Maggie Roy Soros and Bing are able to swallow anything human sized or smaller it is also known at that as darkens for more than suited for terrestrial locomotion with data from as dark at posture limb proportions and trackways indicating that as darkens would have been a competent walkers and would have been able to walk and even truss and run whilst their wings were folded up this has led to the suspect that has no large theropod fossils have turned up in the same sediments after being sampled for centuries it seems that hat co-op tricks may have been the apex predator of the island and was almost certainly robust enough to tackle good-sized prey it seems that the overall robustness of the animal was an adaptation to better able tackle larger prey in the complete absence of large theropod competition and because of this over time more bulky animals were favored through natural selection and because they could get better access to larger food sources they were the ones that's were more likely to pass on their genes to future generations eventually leading to the Magnificent hats adopt Eric's as well as being a terrestrial terror hats aghasura --cz was of course not restricted to hats egg island and would have been able to fly at speeds of around 90 kilometers per hour once airborne and once in an area of uplift such as in deflated winds or thermals could adopt energy-saving soaring and gliding with occasional wind beats to travel the globe with their speed and flight range being able to bypass most geographical barriers so a vagrant hats adopt Eric since a hill creek would not be entirely impossible all in all hats egg island was a fascinating insight into the fauna of islands back in the Cretaceous showing that even back then Islands were just the places of experimentation and diversity that's they are today and shows that many animals went through extraordinary diversification when isolated from their close relatives there are of course other peculiar animals that inhabited the island from small mammals amphibians lizards the aforementioned turtles and birds as well as an unusual animal so fascinating and unique that itself deserves its own video and in the future more may still have yet to be found many of the hats egg island fauna are incomplete and it is exciting to think of all the mysteries that await in the rocks of what was once at Saiga Island and with us I hope you enjoyed this video if you would like to see more be sure to subscribe if you haven't already and I'll see you next time whenever that may be

Channel: Henry the PaleoGuy

Views: 175,515

Rating: 4.9105611 out of 5

Keywords: Hateg, Island, Hateg Island, Romania, Cretaceous, Maastrichtian, Hatzegopteryx, Magyarosaurus, Zalmoxes, Telmatosaurus, Struthiosaurus, Allodaposuchus, Balaur, Pterosaur, Insular Dwarfism, Gigantism, Planet Dinosaur, Sauropod, Hadrosaurid, Iguanodon, Basal, Dinosaur, Dinosaurs, Ben G Thomas, TREY the Explainer, Wildlife, Tyrannosaurus, Tuna, Neanderthal, Paleontology, Habitat, Climate, Extinct, Discoveries, Human, Evolution, Zoology, Cryptozoology, Fossil, Biology, History, Endangered, Anthropology, Prehistory, Swan

Id: YGDMrZ6F33U

Length: 22min 20sec (1340 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 16 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Iamnotburgerking]

An ecosystem where the apex predator was a freaking pterosaur....

[u/[deleted]]

LARGE animals become smaller when isolated on islands. SMALL animals instead tend to become bigger and fill new niches.