What Was The First Dinosaur to Evolve? - UNSOLVED Dinosaur Mysteries

One of the greatest unsolved dinosaur mysteries is what the first one actually was. The fossil record is far from complete, but palaeontologists are getting closer than ever to finally solving this question! These earliest dinosaurs include some fearsome predators such as Staurikosaurus and Herrerasaurus, as well as early sauropodomorphs and potentially even the first of the ornithischians.

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[thinkbolt]

"A Spinosaurus Mystery Video is in the Works" Why am I picturing a Spinosaurus solving crimes?

[hypn]

Please continue this series. Unsolved mysteries are always very intriguing!

[Rynosaur]

The Triassic is my favorite period. I am about to graduate with a BS degree in Paleontology, and I hope to get to study Triassic Dinosaurs in Grad School. So far almost all my experience has been with Cretaceous fossils.

[carolynallisee]

TBH, I'm not surprised at all that scientists can't decide which animal was the first dinosaur to evolve. For some reason the middle to late Triassic world abounded with reptiles of archosaur lineage, and which looked like they could be early dinosaurs, but aren't. It's almost worse than having no fossils at all. With so many almost-but-not-quite dinosaurs running about, it's also unsurprising that some animals that were thought to be early dinosaurs, such as Herrerasaurus, are now cast into doubt. Once again, the lesson we have to take from this is that nothing is ever cut and dried, especially when it comes to living, and once-living, creatures!

[NetheriteGuy-vsne]

For a long time, Pisanosaurus was considered the earliest ornithischian, living about 229 million years ago. More recent studies have supported it being a silesaurid, and with silesaurids now kind of being considered ornithischian dinosaurs, Pisanosaurus may be one of the earliest ornithischians after all.

[brainworthy]

Hi Ben. That was a nice narration and your pronunciation on the various tongue twister names was very impressive.

[The_Story_Of_Us]

Not surprising really that it’s so contentious. It’s hard to know what the first of anything was. The first mammal, first fish, first reptile…

[carrionkitty]

Found your channel yesterday. Thrilled to have it recommend again and the video was posted within the hour! Youtube has been treating me well this week

[ProbableCauseBluesBand]

As a layman it never ceases to blow my mind that all these amazing animals came and went before we even came along!

[metalliphil]

Great video! Some other great prehistoric mystery topics to cover would be the origin of the pterosaurs in the mid-late Triassic, the origin of the Ichthyosaurs in potentially the late Permian, and the middle Permian mass extinction that is probably the second largest mass extinction in Earth history -second to the end Permian/Great Dying, yet rarely gets discussed

[jurgen]

Wake up babe Ben g Tomas dropped another video

[SaerosTheDragon]

I'd love to see a video about the animals of ancient Madagascar and the Indian subcontinent. Abelisaurids, snakes, Beelzebufo etc.

[legendre]

Ben G Thomas, I was interested when I heard that the earliest dinosaurs walked on two legs and that, as they became giant sauropods or armored herbivores, dinosaurs that branched off in these evolutionary directions switched to walking on four legs because they became too heavy to walk on two. 😮🦕

[horcruxhunter]

I’d love to see a video on the origins of mammals!

[oiartsun]

I'd like to see more in the series. I'm interested in any light that fossils can shed on (1) the split between diapsids and synapsids, and also on (2) the origin and early development of archosauriformes.

[christfriedrodeyns]

One of the mysteries I struggle with is the split in mammal evolution to the modern forms: in particular all the forms between platypus and our lineage.

[SmashBrosAssemble]

It looks like the first true Dinosaurs evolved during the Anisian stage of the Triassic.

These would’ve been the most basal, you could even say “Generic” looking Dinosaurs, small bipedal feathered carnivorous animals.

[kateglew]

"A Spinosaurus mystery video is in the works"
Nizar Ibrahim has entered the arena

[AustinThomasPhD]

Unsolved mysteries needs a paleobotany episode.

[MisterPuck]

Considering that there are very few obligate herbavores today, it would be reasonable to assume the same about the past as well. So Sauropods might have eaten meat here and there that we’re just unaware of.