It was additional than 66 million years ago, and we are hunting at a Tyrannosaurus rec they devour the carcass of a giant sauropod dinosaur. You absolutely would not want to be about, but… one thing is diverse. The T.rek is a monster, of course – but his teeth are not them Jurassic Park giant dagger beasts. It definitely does appear fairly compact and – oddly adequate – it has lips.
Most importantly, T.rek is overshadowed by a strange, somewhat sophisticated creature that resembles a beaked bird mixed with a lemur. It is known as a Quetzalcoatlus: it really is a different giant predator, a pterosaur. And he is six meters tall (the size of a giraffe), a small larger than T.rek.
David Attenborough’s familiar voice tells us that this other beast may sting him T.rek‘s eyes with its virtually 2m lengthy beak. We can not see him attempting. In a surprising turn of events, the icon Tyrannosaurus rec – whose name actually comes from the Greek word for ‘absolute ruler’ – is stepping down.
This is paleontologist Darren NaishFavourite scene in Apple Television+ season two A prehistoric planet, Out now. We spoke to Naish – the series’ lead palaeontology consultant – about the science behind it.
“Everybody, of course, normally thinks.” Tyrannosaurus rec as the ultimate predator: an unstoppable killing machine that just bites other points in half,” he says.
“But no predator behaves like that.” Each predator does points to minimize the danger of injury and death to itself.
“There are situations exactly where he will behave pretty conservatively, virtually cowardly.” For the reason that it really is just not worth finding poked in the eye.”
How do scientists know how dinosaurs behaved?
The second season of A prehistoric planet focuses on the interactions among creatures like this, asking concerns like ‘What occurs when two giant predators compete for the exact same resource?’
“We’re answering that query,” says Naish.
But how does he know how a dinosaur may behave? It is not all guesswork. The answer is primarily based on published investigation – most of which Naish was involved in.
Naish tells us that the answer comes from a mixture of variables, specifically their anatomy and the behavior of living animals that are equivalent to these extinct ones.
“This is not an imagined situation,” he claims. “This is totally supported by all these diverse scientific points.”
1st, the scientists had to operate out how to execute the layout Quetzalcoatlus, which was primarily based on a 2008 study that marked a paradigm shift in how researchers assume they are constructed. Their slender create, with 9m folding wings on a lengthy-legged physique, proved to make them extremely capable land predators with the potential to fly.
A additional current study, from 2015, investigated what this building would imply for interactions with other huge predators such as T.rek.
“Each have strengths. Each have possible weaknesses,” stated Naish. “But we argued that Tyrannosaurus would have had second thoughts when faced with such a tall predator.”
“In the sequence, there is really additional than 1 of these animals, since there is proof of social behavior in them.”
About our professional
Darren Naish is a paleontologist and author of books like Ancient marine reptiles and Organic History Museum Dinosaurs Guide. He is the lead consultant for Apple Television+ A prehistoric planet series.
His investigation was published in Science, Journal of Zoology, Trends in evolution and ecologyand FLAT 1.
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