4 Prehistoric Animals That Scientists Got Wrong

4 Extinct Animals That Scientist Got Wrong

Paleontology is a fascinating field that utilizes an array of meticulous methods to best depict what the creatures of old were like: extinct dinosaurs, mammals, reptiles, you name it. However, even though scientists have come a long way in this area, it doesn’t mean it was a smooth road. And through the years, there have been more than a few mistakes, and sometimes a mistake is so significant, it changes how we think about a certain animal, but the silver lining (as seen with these 4 creatures) is that these giant mishaps make for interesting discussions.

Thumbnail Art: Balint Benke (tnilab-ekneb121)

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Music:

[mhdfrb]

Spinosaurus: this isn't my final form!

[alphabetsoup]

I love how original paleontology was basically dinosaur fanfic.

[levongevorgyan]

Learning that the cool giant spider of the Carboniferous was really a small sea scorpion was quite saddening. Before the Dinosaurs made the Carbinferous look awesome, and part of it was the giant bugs they depicted

[terririnella]

i never hold mistakes in interpreting creatures against the researchers, it is not as easy as putting a puzzle together and they are trying to be as accurate as possible...the one story i love most is that for years anomolacarus was considered to be 3 completely unrelated creatures because the fossils used were various pieces of a whole (but not the same individual) animal...often it takes alot of field work, time, multiple discoveries and many specimens (not to mention a little luck and imagination)

and chances are that in as little as 10 or 20 years every known creature from the past where a new find or specimen is found will look somewhat or completely different, especially in the soft tissue areas

[georgedunn]

A story goes than when the natives of Oxfordshire saw the bones of the Megalosaur from their slate quarry they thought it looked like a giant chicken, a creature with whose structure they were intimately familiar.

Their rustic guess turned out to be far closer to the truth than the quadrupedal version of the learned anatomists.

[quintenwhyte]

"The study of dinosaurs is a tale of discovery and blunder. For every breakthrough of understanding, there are usually colossal errors. The head that shouldnt have been a tail; the horn that was really claw. The meat-eater's head stuck in a vegetarian's body. Today's scientists works like patient detectives seeking the truth from fragments of bones, advancing new theories and backtracking to correct old mistakes..."-Paleoworld intro

[Rune_Scholar]

I's kind of weird how all of his videos kind of just stop, abruptly. They just end. No cool down. Just done.

[qwellen]

The funny thing about the earliest dinosaur reconstructions are that there some what accurate - to the creatures of Permian and Triassic. These weird mammal reptile hybrids that have these almost unnerving dark mystique to them.

[calessel]

It's also hilarious that the paleo art at 3:18 clearly shows a horseshoe crab (with antennas!!!??) on the beach, but labels it a "king crab." Not only two completely different arthropods, but one (the king crab) that didn't exist until the Cenozoic.

[admiralcat]

3:18 I'm more concerned of that horseshoe crab supposedly named "king crab" like how would you even miss that lmao

[timhyatt]

you left out the single most miss-identified creature: the Anomalocaris. It was simultaneously identified as 3 different creatures: a jellyfish, a shrimp and a sea cucumber. it wasn't until decades later it was correctly identified all three fossils were different portions of the same type of critter, being a mouth, a feeding appendage and an abdomen. Since then, they've found Anamalocarids were the apex predator of the early Cambrian. .

[tellmeaboutyourgame]

Love all the dinosaurs being mistaken for lizards and the one lizard being mistaken for a dinosaur lol

[canis]

Spinosaurus: the dinosaur that invented gravity.

[ethanholmer]

The old reconstructions of dinosaurs for some reason make them seem more scary.

[Bob_Lennart]

It's interesting that William Buckland described the megalosaurus as being the size of a bus before the invention of the combustion engine.

[philipnorris]

When dealing with the subject of prehistoric life there will, inevitably, always be a good deal of educated guesswork, and trial and error, involved.

[youthere]

finds half a toe bone- let me show you this monster

[AspireGMD]

Yet another banger, the frequent uploads are amazing. Keep up the great videos!

[TravisMcInroy]

The title should be "Prehistoric creatures that new scientific evidence has given us a better understanding of over time."

[Mathijskuit]

Amazing that a man in 1824 compared a dinosaur's size to a bus ;) or maybe even two!