#prehistoric planet 2

[wayward-delver]

Prehistoric Planet finally gives us the True Rival to the Tyrant Lizard King and it's NOT a Dinosaur.

#prehistoric planet #prehistoric planet 2 #t-rex #tyrannosaurus rex #quetzalcoatlus #quetzalcoatl #prehistoric planet season 2 #prehistoric #prehistory #feathered dinosaurs #dinosaurs #t rex #tyrannosaurus #pterosaur #pterosaurs #walking with dinosaurs #wwd #jurassic park #jurassic world #jurassic world dominion #azdarchid #Alamosaurus #nature #animals

[a-dinosaur-a-day]

a little friend is swimming by, just wants to say hi

#ammonites #baby ammonite #prehistoric planet #prehistoric planet 2 #palaeoblr

[i-draws-dinosaurs]

Prehistoric Planet 2 screenshots + a Guy for scale

(sizes roughly approximated using skeletal diagrams)

#prehistoric planet #prehistoric planet 2 #prehistoric planet spoilers #dinosaur #pterosaurs #paleontology #paleoart #palaeoblr

[dedicatedfollower467]

prehistoric planet 2: a primitive relative of ducks gather here me: well i mean the more accurate term is "basal" but okay prehistoric planet 2: but something else is here as well. prehistoric planet 2: dinosaurs me: .... ducks.... ARE dinosaurs..... mr attenborough sir ducks are dinosaurs birds are dinosaurs i know you mean non-avian dinosaurs but bro. c'mon.

#dinosaurs #prehistoric planet #prehistoric planet 2 #dinosaur #birds are dinosaurs

[blorbologist]

oh my god i love them

#simosuchus #prehistoric planet #prehistoric planet 2 #crocodilians #paleoblr #pp2 liveblog

[fourorfivemovements]

Prehistoric Planet 2: Episode 1 - Islands

#let's goooooo #Prehistoric Planet 2 #Prehistoric Planet #Dinosaurs #My Post

[diblmetta]

Favorite scene from “islands” in Prehistoric Planet 2

#prehistoric planet #prehistoric planet 2 #myart

[carvente]

#prehistoric planet 2 #trex #quetzacoatlus #paleontology #palaeoblr

[lokidokeyartichoki]

*me aggressively tapping a stick against the Prehistoric Planet producers’ windows in the middle of the night* where are the coelacanths mr favreau they’ve been alive for 66 million years and your ocean episode took place 65 million years ago *smacks the stick against the glass even louder until security has to come get me* where are my fiSH MR FAVREAU *hurls the stick against the window as i’m dragged away* MY COELACANTHS MR FAVREAU

#JON FAVREAU I NEED TO SAY A FEW WORDS #prehistoric planet 2 #izzy at home #coelacanth #coelacanths #i am so pissed that they were like ‘oh the elasmasaur’ bitch I DON’T CARE ABOUT THEM #I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOUR MOSASAURUS #I WANT. THE COELACANTH. #MY WANTS AND DEMANDS ARE SIMPLE

[a-book-of-creatures]

It’s been nagging at me for a while, so I’m going to try to put together my thoughts on the Quetzalcoatlus sequence in Prehistoric Planet 2. In the grand scheme of things it’s tiny, insignificant, and I loved Prehistoric Planet, but I’m not going to turn down the opportunity to talk at length about scavenging birds.

(Spoilers (?) for Prehistoric Planet 2 ahead. Go watch it!)

I’m talking about the part where a Tyrannosaurus is driven off from an Alamosaurus carcass (presumably carrion and not killed by the tyrannosaur). The tyrannosaur is expressly stated to be concerned about losing an eye to those Whopping Big Beaks. The pterosaurs aggressively fly over it a few times and honk angrily until the tyrannosaur walks away in Shameful Defeat, leaving the carcass to the pterosaurian pterrors.

And that confused me.

Before I go on, I want to point out that this is not a Who Would Win discussion, I’m not going to argue for or against one or another. Not going to discuss if Tyrannosaurus should really have won because of the massive weight advantage and lack of fragile bones/wings, or if the big landlubber had it coming and the numbers and aerial advantage was too much. I’m not arguing about Quetzalcoatlus being scary or not either (it’s scary as all hell).

No, the issue I had was with the beaks.

This is the Quetzalcoatlus as it appears in the show.

Impressive beak, isn’t it?

But it’s not the beak of a flesh tearer.

Let’s back up a bit. Birds that eat meat by tearing it into manageable chunks typically evolve sharp, hooked beaks to make up for the lack of teeth. Like this eagle for instance.

Majestic. They make the cutest sounds too. Look up golden eagle sounds, don’t believe the red-tailed hawk propaganda.

Raptor bills look intimidating, but they’re not there for killing. They’re cutlery. The talons do all the work, and then the beak tears up the meat into delicious gobbets of protein.

Even shrikes get in on the act. They don’t have killer feet, so they use their ripping bills to impale prey and tear at it.

Aw, look at it, it thinks it’s accipitrids.

The Quetzalcoatlus’ bill, though, doesn’t have that hook. It doesn’t look like the bill of a bird that dismembers its food. The closest thing I could think of to compare it with was stork bills. Specifically the marabou.

Ol’ pickaxe-for-a-face. This is the beak of an animal that stabs smaller prey and swallows them whole with minimum processing.

But a bill this long and pointed, turns out, is good for stabbing but not for tearing meat. Marabous are scavengers, but they won’t tear apart a carcass on their own. The “[b]ill [is] not well designed for dismembering carcasses, so [it] normally steals scraps from vultures or snatches up morsels that are dropped” (del Hoyo, Elliott, and Sargatal, 1992).

As you can see, vultures retained the hallmark accipitrid steak knife face, and are much better at Ripping and Tearing. This one (the lappet-faced vulture) generally goes first, being big and strong enough to Rip and Tear tough hide and get to the fleshy interior.

In fact, “[d]espite its huge bill, the [marabou] stork can rarely dominate a carcass and normally stands by the much more numerous vultures and nips in from time to time to snatch morsels which are dropped by others, though Tawny Eagles (Aquila rapax) in turn often steal food from the stork. The bill is not apparently very effective for cutting up meat and dismemberment is normally carried out quite simply by pulling” (del Hoyo, Elliott, and Sargatal, 1992). And if marabous have trouble with the average carcass, I wouldn’t imagine Quetzalcoatlus would fare much better with a titanosaur, which presumably has rather thick skin too.

One big happy family. That’s a much smaller carcass being shared (with the obligatory squabbling) by a whole bunch of dinosaurs. Neither vultures nor marabou are trying to monopolize it.

So... I don’t see why the big stork pterosaurs would chase away a perfectly good meat processor. I know everyone wants to see Big Prehistoric Animals Fighting With Lethal Intent, and everyone wants to see Tyrannosaurus Getting Knocked Down A Peg By The New Hotness, but I think it would have been a more interesting and believable scene - not to mention more in keeping with Prehistoric Planet’s attempt to be as scientifically believable as possible - if the pterosaurs acted like marabous the size of giraffes, both them and the tyrannosaur keeping a respectful distance of each other, and snapping up bits of meat left behind. And maybe the pterosaurs pulling the dinosaur’s tail for good measure, the way ravens bully eagles.

But it would make for a much less exciting scene. Who wants to watch a bunch of scavengers milling around a carcass and honking at each other as they jockey for the best morsels and settling their differences in ways that involve as little risk as possible? I mean, I do, but I don’t assume the average viewer does.

And that concludes my altogether far too long opinion on a single scene from a great series. Of course, I’m not a paleontologist and never will be, I’m only approaching this with what I know about birds, so please feel free to let me know if there’s any details of Quetzalcoatlus anatomy that do in fact suggest it could rip and tear!

References

del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A.; and Sargatal, J. eds. (1992) Handbook of the Birds of the World, Vol. 1. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.

#prehistoric planet #prehistoric planet 2 #dinosaurs #pterosaurs #quetzalcoatlus #birds #paleontology #paleoblr #long post #disclaimer: I am not in any way throwing asparagus at Prehistoric Planet 2 #I'm not panning it in any way #tyrannosaurus #azhdarchids

[confusedhadrosaur]

Young Pectinodon from Prehistoric Planet Season 2

#paleoart #palaeoert #art #dinosaur #dinosaurs #prehistoric #paleontology #palaeontology #digital art #pectinodon #pectinodon bakkeri #Troodontidae #theropoda #theropod #prehistoric planet #prehistoric planet 2

[wayward-delver]

Prehistoric Planet season 2 just aired and taught me the abject terror being pursued by a flock of giraffe-sized azhdarchid pterosaurs would be. 

(Each large enough swallow a person whole.)

#prehistoric planet #prehistoric planet 2 #prehistoric planet season 2 #hatzegopteryx #pterosaur #pterosaurs #azhdarchid #hadrosaur #tethyshadros #dinosaurs #dinosaur #walking with dinosaurs #jurassic park #jurassic world #jurassic world dominion #paleobiology #paleontology #paleoblr #feathered dinosaurs #video #animals #nature

[skyradiant]

Life of our Prehistoric Planet: Pectinodon bakkeri.

#prehistoric planet #prehistoric planet 2 #pectinodon #troodon #dinosaurs #mine #ending this series on my birthday will be back for more if there's a third season #q

[i-draws-dinosaurs]

PREHISTORIC PLANET SEASON 2 TEASER

IT’S HAPPENINGGGG

#dinosaurs #prehistoric planet #prehistoric planet 2 #paleontology #palaeoblr

[dinofan774]

#palaeoblr #prehistoric planet #prehistoric planet 2 #zalmoxes #mononykus #simosuchus #funny memes #funny #no one can stop me #made with the power of gimp and too much time

[blorbologist]

I adore how frogish Beelzebufo is here

So often animated amphibians just miss the something to their behavior - the repositioning, the posture adjustments, the lil blinkies, how they breathe, those oh so scary lunges. the little cleaning gesture.

And he looks wet! Moist, even! Like a frog out of the water just barely too long! It’s so perfect!

Impeccable portrayal of the most majestic creature on this show

look at this. terrifying. devil toad. quake in fear.

The Only thing I’d say is that. guys. riled up frogs will try to mate with anything. males. fish. rocks. rubber boots.

imagine if he’d tried a sexy amplexus hug on the Rapetosaurus.

#I mean we knew he was here from the trailer but BEELZEBUFO MY BELOVED!!! LOOK AT HOW GOOD HE LOOKS!!! INCREDIBLE #MAJESTIC REGAL MAGNIFICENT #prehistoric planet #prehistoric planet 2 #prehistoric planet spoilers #beelzebufo #pp2 liveblog #paleoblr