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10 BIGGEST Creatures That Ever Flew — Transcript

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0:00Imagine
0:01looking up to see a creature the size of
0:04a small plane flying above you. It may
0:06seem far-fetched, but creatures like
0:08this once roamed the planet. So, in this
0:10video, I'm going to count down the top
0:1210 biggest creatures that ever flew.
0:16Let's start with number 10. Meguropus,
0:19the biggest insect that ever flew.
0:23So, in this whole countdown, we're going
0:24to take a look at the greatest flyers of
0:26every kind. From insects to birds to
0:28flying reptiles, they're all ranked by
0:30the span of their wings and building
0:32towards the largest creature ever to
0:34take to the air. So, we're going to
0:36begin with the undisputed giant in the
0:38insect world. Meet meuropsis, a predator
0:41that resembled an enormous dragonfly,
0:44though it was only in fact a distant
0:46relative belonging to an extinct group
0:48known as griffin flies. With a wingspan
0:51of about 71 cmters that was about the
0:53size of a hawk or a crow. It was
0:55genuinely an enormous insect. Now, what
0:58makes it all the more interesting is the
1:00antiquity of the world that it lived in.
1:02It flew some 290 million years ago in a
1:05time so distant it predates not only the
1:07dinosaurs but birds, bats, and even the
1:10terasaurs.
1:12In those ancient skies, nothing with a
1:14backbone had yet evolved the ability to
1:17fly, which meant that these giant
1:18insects ruled the air unchallenged.
1:22It was a formidable aerial hunter,
1:24snatching smaller creatures out of the
1:26air, much as a dragonfly does today.
1:29Now, the obvious question is, how the
1:30hell could an insect like this grown so
1:32large? The answer is in the very air of
1:35that age. Insects don't breathe using
1:37lungs like we do. They instead take in
1:40oxygen through a network of tiny tubes
1:41that carry it directly to their tissues.
1:45This kind of system places a natural
1:46limit on how big they can grow. But
1:48during their time, the atmosphere
1:50contained way more oxygen than it does
1:52today. Maybe as much as a third more of
1:54the air compared to around a fifth now.
1:57And this oxygen-rich environment allowed
1:59the insects to reach sizes that would be
2:01impossible today.
2:03Although it is often described as just a
2:05giant dragonfly, megauropsis belong to
2:08an extinct order of insects known as the
2:10griffin flies. These just merely
2:12resemble dragon flies rather than being
2:14a true member of the group since the
2:15ancestors of today's dragon flies and
2:17damsel flies had not yet evolved into
2:19their modern forms. These griffin flies
2:22were all large predatory insects and the
2:24megauropsis was the greatest of them.
2:27Its fossils are exceedingly rare. The
2:29delicate exoskeletons of these insects
2:31preserve very poorly and the creature is
2:33known mainly from fragments of its
2:35wings. One prized specimen of which has
2:37long been displayed in a university
2:39museum in the US. But a close cousin,
2:41Meganura, patrolled the swamp forests of
2:43an even earlier period about 300 million
2:46years ago. That was among the first of
2:48these giants to be discovered and
2:49described by scientists.
2:52But the rain of the giant insects
2:54couldn't last forever. The ages passed.
2:56The levels of oxygen in the atmosphere
2:58gradually fell and the great size that
3:00had once been possible became
3:02increasingly difficult to sustain. Maybe
3:05just as importantly, the eventual
3:06arrival of flying vertebrates, the first
3:08terasaurs and later birds and bats,
3:11introduced a host of new aerial
3:13predators and competitors.
3:15It's worth stopping to appreciate that
3:17this wasn't some lone freak of nature,
3:19rather the aerial champion of an entire
3:22age of giants. That same oxygenrich
3:24world that allowed it to grow so large
3:26also gave rise to a whole host of
3:28enormous creepy crawies. Prowling the
3:30forest floors beneath the giant griffin
3:32flies were arthropods of a size that
3:34would seem the stuff of nightmares
3:35today. Alongside them crept the
3:38relatives of scorpions, spiders, and
3:40other invertebrates. All of them
3:41benefiting from the same unusually high
3:43levels of oxygen. But Megauropsis,
3:46soaring above this landscape, was the
3:48undisputed ruler of disguise within it.
3:52Number nine, the wandering albatross.
3:55The biggest flyer alive today.
3:58So before we go deeper into the giants
4:00of the prehistoric past, we're going to
4:02stop a bit to establish a benchmark from
4:04the world that we know about. And so
4:06this ninth entry is the largest flying
4:08creature alive on Earth right now. A
4:10magnificent wandering albatross. This
4:13great seabird has a wingspan of 3 and
4:161/2 m, the longest of any living bird.
4:18And to witness one gliding over the
4:20ocean is to appreciate just how large a
4:22flying animal can grow in the modern
4:24age. It is basically a monarch of the
4:27open seas, roaming the stormy waters of
4:29the southern ocean that encircle
4:31Antarctica.
4:32The wandering albatross is a master of
4:35flight. It's superbly adapted to make
4:37the most of the wind. Rather than
4:39flapping constantly, which would just be
4:41exhausting for so big a bird, it employs
4:43a remarkable technique of just riding
4:45the air currents above the waves,
4:47locking its wings and soarses for hours
4:49or even days at a time without a single
4:51beat of its wings. It can cover
4:53thousands of kilometers of ocean in its
4:55wanderings. This economy of effort is
4:58what allows such a heavy bird to spend
5:01the vast majority of its life on the
5:03wind.
5:04These birds are also remarkably
5:06longived. They often survive for about
5:0850 years or more, and they form devoted
5:10partnerships, typically mating for life
5:12and returning to remote islands to raise
5:14their young. As the largest flyer in the
5:16world today, the wandering albatross
5:18does represent the upper limit though of
5:20what's possible for a flying animal in
5:22our own era. And yet, astonishing as its
5:243 and 1/2 m wingspan might be, it would
5:26be utterly dwarfed by the colossal
5:28creatures still to come in this list.
5:31So, this thing is a living yard stick
5:33against which to measure the giants of
5:35the past.
5:36Let's talk a bit more about that
5:38technique which they travel the enormous
5:40distances is a genuine marvel. It's
5:42known to scientists as dynamic soaring.
5:45By exploiting the way the wind blows at
5:47different speeds at different heights
5:49above the waves, the bird's able to gain
5:51energy from the air itself, repeatedly
5:53rising up into the faster winds high
5:54above the surface and then swooping back
5:56down, extracting just enough energy with
5:59each cycle to keep itself aloft almost
6:01indefinitely without flapping. So
6:03perfectly adapted are they to this way
6:05of life that flapping their great wings
6:07actually cost them a considerable effort
6:09and they prefer to glide, expending
6:11barely more energy and flight than they
6:13would while resting. But sadly, these
6:15beautiful birds face some serious
6:17threats in the modern world. Many are
6:19killed each year when they become caught
6:20on the hooks of longline fishing vessels
6:23and they're further imperiled by the
6:24plastic pollution that increasingly
6:26fills the oceans. It is a bit of a
6:29sobering thought. The largest flying
6:31bird of our own age is in such danger.
6:33Yet for all its beauty, the wandering
6:35albatross does serve above all as a
6:38measure of scale. We're going to ascend
6:40the countdown and we're going to see
6:42creatures whose wings stretch two,
6:43three, or even more times as wide.
6:48Number eight, Argentavis, the giant
6:50terror of the skies.
6:53So now we're going to begin the journey
6:54into the realm of the prehistoric
6:56giants. Starting with a colossal bird
6:58that soared over the plains of South
7:00America around 6 million years ago.
7:02Known as Argentavis magnificence, a name
7:05that fittingly means magnificent
7:07Argentine bird. This creature possessed
7:09a wingspan of about 6 m or more and is
7:13thought to have weighed in the region of
7:1470 kg, making it for a very long time
7:17the largest flying bird known to
7:18science.
7:20Argentavis belonged to an extinct group
7:22of gigantic birds of prey known as the
7:24territors, distant relatives of today's
7:26vultures and condors. And like those
7:29modern scavengers, it was built to soar
7:31rather than to flap. So large and heavy
7:34was Argentavis that scientists believe
7:35it would have been unable to take off
7:37simply by beating its wings like smaller
7:39birds do. Instead, it most likely
7:41launched itself into the air by running
7:42down a slope into the wind rather like a
7:45hang glider pilot. Maybe by catching the
7:47rising currents of warm air known as
7:48thermals. using them to lift its
7:50enormous bulk before soaring gracefully
7:52across great distances. Once airborne,
7:55it could travel huge distances in search
7:57of food. And it's thought to have either
7:59hunted live prey or scavenged the
8:00carcasses of dead animals, quite
8:02possibly swallowing smaller creatures
8:04whole. Its wing feathers alone may have
8:07been well over a meter in length, which
8:09is just an astonishing thought that
8:10helps convey the size of this thing.
8:12Though it would eventually be surpassed
8:14as the largest known flying bird,
8:16Argentavis remains one of the most
8:18interesting aviators to have ever lived.
8:20So, it's worth clearing up a possible
8:22source of confusion for this one.
8:24Despite ruling the skies, it shouldn't
8:26be mistaken for the so-called terror
8:28birds. Those fearsome flightless
8:30predators that also stalk prehistoric
8:32South America on foot. Argentavis was
8:35something a bit different. A member of
8:36the Territors, a group of enormous
8:38flying birds related to vultures and
8:40condors. Studying how such massive
8:43creatures could have flown has
8:44fascinated researchers forever. The
8:46general consensus is that Argentavis was
8:48just simply too heavy to have flapped
8:50its way into the sky through muscle
8:52power alone. It would launch itself from
8:54high ground or into a stiff breeze and
8:56then soar on the outstretched wings.
8:58Gliding in that manner, it could have
9:00covered huge territories with minimal
9:02effort, searching for the carcasses of
9:04dead animals to scavenge or maybe
9:06swooping down upon smaller living prey.
9:09As a spectacular soaring predator and
9:11one of the largest birds have ever taken
9:12flight, Argentavis is a good entry among
9:15the giants here.
9:18Number seven, Pteranodon. The most
9:20famous flying reptile of all.
9:23So with this one, we arrive at a group
9:25of creatures that dominates the upper
9:27reaches of our countdown. The terasaurs,
9:29the astonishing flying reptiles that
9:31soared through the skies throughout the
9:33age of the dinosaurs. But before we go
9:35any further, it is worth clearing up a
9:37very common misconception. Despite being
9:39often lumped together with them,
9:40terasaurs weren't actually dinosaurs at
9:43all. They were instead a separate group
9:45of flying reptiles. Close cousins of the
9:47dinosaurs that ruled the air with their
9:49more famous relatives dominating the
9:51land below. And the most famous terasaur
9:54of them all is undoubtedly Pteranodon.
9:57When most people picture a prehistoric
9:59flying reptile, it is Pteranodon that
10:01they imagine. With its long toothless
10:04beak and the distinctive backwards
10:05pointing crest sweeping back from its
10:07head, it's got a wingspan of about 6 to
10:107 m. It was a large and impressive
10:12animal. It soared over the seas that
10:14covered much of North America some 85
10:16million years ago during the Lake
10:17Cretaceous. With no teeth in its beak,
10:20though, it made its living by hunting
10:21fish, most likely swooping down to
10:23snatch them up from the water and just
10:25swallowing them whole in a manner of a
10:27modern pelican.
10:29And the purpose of that remarkable head
10:31crest, though, has long been a subject
10:33of debate with various suggestions put
10:35forward over the years. Some believe it
10:36served as a display feature, maybe to
10:38attract mates or intimidate rivals.
10:41Others have proposed that it may have
10:42acted as a kind of rudder to help with
10:44steering and flight or as a
10:46counterbalance to the animals long beak.
10:48Whatever its true function though, the
10:50crest has become one of its most iconic
10:52features. Yet, for all its fame, this
10:55one's a good reminder that being the
10:56best known is not the same as being the
10:58biggest. Despite its considerable size,
11:00it's only seven on this list. It's
11:02comfortably outclassed by the true
11:04giants still to come. But, Pteranodon is
11:07among the best understood of all the
11:08terasaurs. A great many of its fossils
11:10have been discovered over the years,
11:11allowing scientists to build up a
11:13detailed picture of the animal. The
11:15fossils have revealed some intriguing
11:16details, including the fact that there
11:18appears to have been two distinct forms,
11:20one a much larger crest than the other,
11:22which many researchers believe
11:24represents the difference between males
11:25and females, with the males sporting the
11:27grander headgear, quite possibly to
11:30impress their mates. But like all
11:32terasaur, pteranodon was built for life
11:34in the air. Its wings were not formed
11:36from feathers, but of a thin membrane of
11:38skin stretched between its body and an
11:41enormously elongated fourth finger,
11:43creating a broad surface, ideally suited
11:45to soaring. It's also worth mentioning
11:47that the creature many people call a
11:49pterodactyl and picture as being
11:51enormous is often really a pterodon. The
11:54true pterodactylus was a much smaller
11:57animal, no larger than a modern bird of
11:58prey. It's a common mixup that's
12:00persisted in popular culture for
12:02generations. But with its soaring flight
12:05and its elegant crest and even the fish
12:07hunting lifestyle over the Cretaceous
12:08seas, Pteranodon captured the popular
12:11imagination like no other flying
12:13reptile.
12:15Number six, Pelagornsis Sandersai. The
12:18biggest bird ever to fly.
12:21So, we're going to return once more to
12:23the world of birds. This time to crown
12:25the largest of them all. Peligornisa
12:27Sandersai holds the record as the
12:29biggest flying bird ever discovered.
12:31With an estimated wingspan reaching
12:33somewhere between 6 and 12 to 7 and 1/2
12:36m, it was larger than even the
12:38magnificent Argentavis we met earlier
12:40and considerably bigger than the famous
12:42pteranodon. An astonishing size for a
12:45creature with feathers. This remarkable
12:48bird soared over the oceans around 25
12:50million years ago. and its fossil was
12:52fittingly unearthed during construction
12:53work at an airport in South Carolina in
12:56the United States. Pelgornis belonged to
12:58a peculiar and long extinct group known
13:01as the bony tooththed birds. It
13:03possessed one of the most unusual
13:04features of any bird that's ever lived.
13:06Rather than the true teeth found in some
13:08ancient birds, its long beak was lined
13:10with a series of sharp toothlike spikes
13:13made of bone. They projected from the
13:15jaw and were perfectly suited to
13:16gripping slippery prey like fish and
13:18squid plucked up from the surface of the
13:20ocean. These bony pseudo teeth did give
13:23it a fearsome serrated bite that was
13:26ideal for life spent hunting over the
13:28ocean. And like other giants on this
13:30list, Peligornis was almost certainly
13:32way too large and heavy to even launch
13:34itself into the air by flapping. So,
13:36it's thought to have taken off from
13:37cliffs or by running downhill into a
13:39headwind before spreading its enormous
13:41wings and soaring for huge distances.
13:44Only described by scientists relatively
13:46recently, it claimed the title of the
13:48largest flying bird from Argentavis, and
13:51it stands as a great example of just how
13:52large a feathered creature could become.
13:55The bony tooth birds, to which this one
13:58belonged, were a highly successful group
14:00that roamed the world's oceans for tens
14:02of millions of years. They're notable
14:04for having grown to sizes way beyond any
14:06bird alive today. When scientists came
14:09to study the remarkably complete fossil
14:11of this one, they used computer models
14:13to work out how such an enormous bird
14:15could have possibly flown. The long
14:18narrow wings were perfectly shaped for
14:20extracting the energy from wind over the
14:22open sea. It allowed it to travel great
14:24distances in search of food, and it
14:26likely spent almost its entire life out
14:28over the water, coming to land only to
14:30breed to raise its young.
14:33The story of its discovery has an
14:35interesting touch. Its fossilized
14:36remains were uncovered during
14:38construction work to expand an airport.
14:40It's a fitting resting place for one of
14:42the greatest natural aviators the world
14:44has ever known. Sadly though, the bony
14:46tooththed birds eventually died out,
14:48disappearing a few million years ago
14:50after a long and successful reign over
14:52the oceans, and with them vanished the
14:54largest birds to have ever flown. Only
14:56through their fossils can we now really
14:58appreciate just how enormous these
15:00creatures could become. The fact that
15:02for all its enormous size that it still
15:04ranks only sixth on our list raises an
15:07interesting question. Why did birds
15:08never grow as large as the giant flying
15:10reptiles that top our list? The answer
15:13lies in some fundamental differences
15:15between the two groups. Birds fly using
15:17wings made of feathers and they launch
15:19themselves into the air using only their
15:20two hind legs, a method that places a
15:23natural limit on how heavy a bird can
15:25become while still being able to get
15:26airborne. Since beyond a certain weight,
15:29legs just simply can't generate enough
15:31power to leap into flight. The terasaur,
15:34as we're going to see, launched in a
15:35quite a different manner, using all four
15:36of their limbs to vault into the sky.
15:38That allowed them to heave a far greater
15:40bulk loft than any bird could manage.
15:43There's also some differences in the way
15:45that the two kinds of wings are built.
15:46The terasaur's single sheet of membrane
15:48offered a certain advantage at truly
15:50gigantic sizes. But for all these
15:52reasons, birds appear to have run up
15:54against a ceiling on their maximum size
15:56somewhere in the region of the creatures
15:58we've seen so far. Whereas the terasaurs
16:00were able to push on to dimensions more
16:02than twice as large. But all this just
16:05makes pelgorns all the more impressive.
16:07It represents the very upper limit of
16:09what a feathered flyer could achieve.
16:11This was a bird that pushed the absolute
16:13boundary of aven size.
16:16Number five, Tropioagnus, the tooththed
16:20seadragon.
16:22So, we're halfway through our countdown.
16:23We're going to return to the terasaurs,
16:25and from here on out, the creatures we
16:27encounter are going to grow truly
16:28gigantic. Tropiothus is one of the
16:31largest terasaurs to ever have possessed
16:33teeth, had an impressive wingspan of
16:35around 8 1/2 m. This animal soared over
16:38what is now Brazil, roughly 110 million
16:41years ago, during the early Cretaceous
16:43period. It patrolled the skies above a
16:45great inland sea in search of prey.
16:48Unlike the toothless giants that made up
16:50much of our list so far, Tropion was
16:52armed with a full mouth of sharp pointed
16:55teeth, and it supported a distinctive
16:57rounded crest on both its upper and
16:59lower jaws, giving its snout a curious
17:02keelike shape. Now, the exact purpose of
17:04these crests is still uncertain. Some
17:06scientists suggest they may have helped
17:08the animal to slice cleanly through the
17:10water as it hunted, while others believe
17:12they served as a display feature to
17:14impress potential mates or rivals.
17:16Either way, they gave it a striking and
17:18unmistakable appearance from the flying
17:20reptiles of its age. This great terasaur
17:23belonged to a group known as the
17:25ornithicariads. These were specialized
17:27fish hunters and tropion is thought to
17:30have made its living by flying low over
17:32the surface of the sea and snatching
17:34fish from the water with its toothy
17:35jaws. It was superbly adapted to a life
17:38spent hunting over the ocean. It was a
17:40master of its domain and at around 8 and
17:43a half meters across it was larger than
17:45any bird that has ever lived. It was a
17:47giant of the skies and yet remarkably
17:50it's still comfortably smaller than the
17:52true titans that occupy the top of this
17:54list. Tropionatus hails from one of the
17:57most famous fossil sites in all of
17:59paleontology, a region of Brazil that
18:01has yielded an extraordinary trove of
18:03beautifully preserved terasaur remains,
18:06giving scientists a remarkable window
18:08into the flying reptiles of the early
18:10Cretaceous. Thanks to these fossils, we
18:12know a good deal about the group to
18:14which Tropionatus belonged, which were
18:16among the most accomplished fish hunters
18:18of the terasaur world. A giant terasaur
18:21of this general kind was famously
18:23brought to life in a well-known
18:24television documentary series about
18:26prehistoric life, depicted as an aging
18:29traveler soaring across the ancient
18:31world. Though the size given to that
18:33particular animal was rather exaggerated
18:35compared to what the fossils actually
18:37suggest. The real tropionatus though was
18:40nonetheless a genuinely enormous animal
18:42and its most distinctive features were
18:44those rounded keelike crests. Living
18:47over a vast inland sea, it would have
18:49been a common and imposing sight,
18:52wheeling through the skies above the
18:53waves in search of its next meal. As one
18:56of the largest terasaurs ever to possess
18:58teeth and a superbly specialized hunter
19:01of the ancient waters, Tropion is an
19:03interesting and formidable entry. So,
19:05we're going to press on to the very
19:07greatest giants of all whose wings
19:09dwarfed even this magnificent creature.
19:13Number four, Aram Borganium, the giant
19:16with the endless neck.
19:19All right, we're finally reaching the
19:20domain of the true titans of the sky, a
19:23group of terasaurs known as the Adarids,
19:25which include the largest flying animals
19:27to have ever existed anywhere. These
19:30were creatures of almost unbelievable
19:32sizes with wingspan stretching 10 m and
19:34beyond. And the first one to feature on
19:36this list is the Aram Bourjanium, a
19:38colossal flyer with an estimated span of
19:41around 10 m. It soared over the region
19:44that is now Jordan about 70 million
19:46years ago during the twilight of the Age
19:48of Dinosaurs. It's known chiefly from a
19:50single but highly revealing fossil, a
19:53huge neckbone that immediately told
19:55scientists they were dealing with an
19:56animal of extraordinary dimensions.
19:59What this fossil did reveal was that it
20:01possessed an astonishingly long neck,
20:03even longer than that of a giraffe. A
20:05feature shared to varying degrees by all
20:07the greatest archets, which were
20:08characterized by their remarkably long,
20:10stiff necks and their long, pointed,
20:12toothless beaks. It was one of the very
20:15first giant terasaurs ever to be
20:17discovered, offering early hints of just
20:19how enormous these flying reptiles could
20:21grow. For a long time, the size of these
20:24Adarids led some to wonder how they
20:26could possibly have lived. But
20:27scientists now have an interesting
20:29picture of their likely lifestyle. Far
20:31from spending all their time in the air,
20:32these giants are thought to have been
20:34formidable hunters on the ground, too,
20:36striding across the landscape on all
20:38fours, holding their great wings up like
20:40walking sticks, like in the manner of an
20:43enormous stork. As they stalked across
20:45the terrain, they would have used their
20:47long necks and beaks to stab down at
20:49smaller creatures like lizards, small
20:51mammals, maybe even baby dinosaurs,
20:54plucking them from the ground before
20:55swallowing them whole. That single neck
20:58bone from which so much about it has
20:59been deduced was itself an interesting
21:01find. A vertebrae of tremendous length
21:04hinted at a neck of truly giraffe-like
21:06proportions. And because the remains are
21:08so fragmentaryary, the exact size has
21:10been the subject of debate. Estimates of
21:13its wingspan vary quite widely.
21:15Scientists have reassessed the evidence
21:16over the years. The creature though
21:18takes its name from a distinguished
21:19paleontologist honoring his
21:21contributions to the study of
21:22prehistoric life. But one interesting
21:25discovery about the great archids
21:27concerns their long neck. Far from being
21:29flexible and swanlike, they were
21:31actually rather stiff and inflexible. A
21:33feature that has important implications
21:35for how these animals must have fed. A
21:37neck built like a rigid pole really
21:39wouldn't have been well suited to
21:41plucking large strungling prey from
21:43water or lifting heavy carcasses. And
21:45this has helped to shape the modern
21:46understanding of them as hunters. But
21:49striding across on all fours across the
21:51prehistoric landscape, folding their
21:53enormous wings out of the way, they
21:55would have cut an imposing figure as
21:57they patrolled their territories. With a
21:59range that may have covered huge
22:01distances, these giants were formidable
22:03and far-ranging predators.
22:06Number three, Cryodraken, the frozen
22:10dragon of the north.
22:12So, claiming the third spot on this list
22:14is a giant terasaur with one of the most
22:16evocative names in all of paleontology.
22:20Cryodraken Boreius. It translates
22:22roughly as the frozen dragon of the
22:24north wind, which is just awesome. This
22:27enormous as dark possessed a wingspan of
22:3010 m. It's thought to have weighed as
22:32much as 250 kg. And it places it firmly
22:35among the very largest flying creatures
22:37ever known. It was soaring over land
22:40that is now Alberta, Canada
22:41approximately 77 million years ago
22:43during the late Cretaceous period. This
22:46thing was a true dragon of ancient
22:47Canadian skies. Now, the story of how it
22:50came to be recognized is an interesting
22:52one. Its fossils had actually been
22:54discovered around 30 years earlier. Yet,
22:56for all that time, it's been mistakenly
22:58assumed to belong to another giant
22:59terasaur. the famous kettzle kowatalas.
23:02It wasn't until relatively recently in
23:042019 that scientists took a fresh look
23:06at the remains and realized they in fact
23:08belong to an entirely distinct non-known
23:10species. It was a remarkable discovery
23:13and it revealed that the skies of
23:14prehistoric North America had been home
23:16to more than one of these enormous
23:18creatures. Now in terms of size, cryen
23:21rivals even the mighty ketuatlas itself,
23:24making it one of the largest animals to
23:26ever take into the air. Like its fellow
23:28Isarkids, it's possessed the
23:30characteristic of a long neck and a long
23:32toothless beak of the group, and it's
23:34believed to have led a similar
23:36lifestyle, striding across the landscape
23:38in search of prey, while also being
23:39capable of powered flight on its wings.
23:42The recognition of cryen as a distinct
23:45animal came about through the careful
23:46work of researchers who took a fresh
23:48look at the fossils that had been
23:49gathering dust in collections for
23:51decades. And their study, published in
23:532019, finally gave this giant the
23:55identity it deserved. Among the remains
23:57they examined were the bones of a
23:59younger, not yet fully grown individual
24:01whose wingspan already measured about 5
24:03meters alongside a neckbone from a fully
24:05grown adult. The fossils came from a
24:08region of Alberta that's become world
24:10famous for the richness of the dinosaur
24:12age remains there. A place where the
24:14rocks preserve a snapshot of life at the
24:16close of the age of the dinosaurs. Like
24:19its relatives, cryoden would have been a
24:21fearsome presence in the landscape
24:22there. and it's thought to have prayed
24:24upon a variety of smaller animals,
24:25including lizards, maybe small mammals,
24:27and quite possibly the young of other
24:29dinosaurs.
24:30The discovery was an important one, not
24:32only for revealing a magnificent new
24:34species, but for also showing that the
24:36skies of prehistoric North America had
24:38been shared by more than one of these
24:40enormous flyers. And it deepened our
24:42understanding of just how diverse and
24:43successful the giant terasaurs had
24:45become.
24:48Number two, Hatzigopterix, the apex
24:51predator of a lost island.
24:54So, taking the runner-up position, it's
24:55a giant terasaur and wasn't only
24:57enormous, it was terrifying. This is a
25:00creature that sat at the very top of its
25:01food chain. Hatigopterix. It was a
25:04colossal Aderkid with a wingspan
25:06estimated at somewhere between 10 to 12
25:08m. It placed it among the largest flying
25:11animals of all time. But what truly set
25:12it apart from the other giants was its
25:14remarkably powerful build. Unlike the
25:17more lightly constructed members of its
25:19group, this one possessed a massive,
25:21robust skull and a thick muscular neck.
25:23Features that reveal it to have been a
25:25fearsome hunter built to tackle large
25:27and dangerous prey. This mighty creature
25:30lived about 66 million years ago at the
25:32very end of the age of dinosaurs on a
25:34large island that once existed in the
25:36region now known as Transylvania in
25:38Romania at a time when much of Europe
25:40was just broken up into a scattering of
25:42islands. This particular island though
25:44was strange and isolated and crucially
25:47it was home to no large predatory
25:49dinosaurs of the kind that dominated
25:51other land. Into this vacancy at the top
25:54of the food chain stepped.
25:56It took the role of the island's apex
25:58predator and it became the undisputed
26:00ruler of its domain.
26:02This island was famous for an
26:04interesting phenomenon known as island
26:05dwarfism in which the animals living
26:07there cut off from the mainland evolved
26:10to be smaller than their relatives
26:11elsewhere. So, the island's dinosaur
26:13were miniaturaturized. They were dwarfed
26:16versions of their kin. It's an
26:17interesting image to conjure. A flying
26:19reptile as tall as a giraffe and as
26:21broad as a small plane, striding across
26:24an ancient island and hunting down
26:25dinosaurs as its prey. Few creatures in
26:28the history of life can have been so
26:30imposing. As a colossal apex predator
26:32that ruled a lost prehistoric island,
26:34this one is a spectacular entry. But
26:38what makes Hatigopter eggs so unusual
26:40among the giant terasaurs is the sturdy
26:42powerful construction of its body. Where
26:45most of its relatives had relatively
26:47slender, lightweight necks, this
26:48creature possessed neckbones that were
26:50exceptionally thickwalled and robust.
26:52Its skull too was massive and strongly
26:55built. And taken together, these
26:56features paint a picture of an animal
26:58quite capable of just overpowering
27:00sizable victims rather than just
27:02snapping up small creatures as many of
27:03its relatives did. That unusual strength
27:06was almost certainly a consequence of
27:08the strange world that it lived in. The
27:10island there, like other islands, home
27:12to a peculiar cast of animals shaped by
27:14their isolation. The dinosaurs had
27:16shrunk to become the dwarf versions. And
27:18with no large meat eating dinosaurs
27:20present to claim them, that role instead
27:22felt the hats.
27:24Standing as tall as a giraffe, armed
27:26with a formidable beak, it would have
27:28stalked across the island realm hunting
27:30the very dinosaurs that it shared with.
27:33It was a genuinely extraordinary
27:35reversal of the usual order in which
27:37dinosaurs were the hunters and terasaurs
27:40the fishers of the sky. Few images from
27:42the ancient world are quite so
27:44interesting as that of this towering
27:45winged reptile ruling its island
27:47kingdom.
27:50Number one, Kessle Kawatlas, the largest
27:53creature that ever flew.
27:55And so we arrived at the top. The single
27:58largest creature to have ever taken to
28:00the skies in the entire history of our
28:02planet. The magnificent kettzle katlas.
28:05This giant terasaur possessed a truly
28:08staggering wingspan, 10 to 11 m, with
28:11some estimates suggesting it may have
28:13been larger still, making it the
28:14undisputed champion of aerial giants.
28:17It's named after Ketaquaddle, the
28:19feathered serpent god of ancient Aztec
28:21mythology, which is a wonderfully
28:23fitting name for so dragon-like a
28:25creature. It soared over the land that
28:27is now Texas and other parts of North
28:29America around 68 million years ago in
28:31the final age of the dinosaurs. To
28:34really understand the scale of this
28:35thing, you got to picture it not in the
28:36air, but on the ground. When standing on
28:38all fours with its wings folded, Kettzel
28:41Guaplas was as tall as a giraffe. Its
28:43head would rise 5 m up into the air.
28:46Weighing in at somewhere between 200 to
28:48250 kg, it was an animal of amazing
28:51proportions. And yet, remarkably, it
28:53could genuinely fly. Now, there was once
28:56considerable debate among scientists as
28:58to whether something so big could
29:00possibly have gotten itself in the air.
29:02But the consensus is now that it most
29:04certainly could, launching itself into
29:06the air with a powerful vaulting motion,
29:08using all four of its limbs before
29:10soaring effectively across great
29:12distances. Like its fellow terasaurs,
29:14it's thought to have stroed across the
29:16land in search of prey, stabbing
29:18downward at the smaller animals with its
29:20long beak. The first fossils of this
29:22creature were unearthed in Texas in the
29:24early 1970s, and even then, the
29:26discovery of a single incomplete wing
29:28was enough to astonish the scientists
29:30who found it. They gave it the name of
29:32the great feathered serpent of Aztec
29:34legend, a choice that perfectly captured
29:36this almost mythical nature of the
29:38beast. In the years since, careful study
29:41has continued to refine our
29:42understanding of how such a giant lived
29:44and moved. And it's now thought that
29:46Katzquatlas spent a good deal of its
29:48time on the ground, striding about on
29:50all fours in search of prey.
29:52The manner of how it got into the air
29:54has been the subject of much research.
29:57And the leading idea is that the animal
29:58used its powerful front limbs to pole
30:01vault itself up and forward off the
30:03ground, gaining just enough height and
30:05momentum in an explosive leap to spread
30:07its enormous wings and begin to fly.
30:10Once a loft, the great size actually
30:12worked to its advantage. An enormous
30:14wing area like this allowed it to soar
30:16for huge distances while expending
30:17remarkably little energy. The secret to
30:21how terasaurs and kettle quatlas above
30:23all managed to grow so large, vastly
30:25larger than any other bird, lies in the
30:28remarkable design of their bodies. It
30:30combined great size with lightness.
30:32Their bones were hollow and filled with
30:34air connected to a system of internal
30:36air sacks much like those of birds. And
30:38although the walls of these bones were
30:40often paper thin, they were cleverly
30:42reinforced with internal struts that
30:44gave them tremendous strength for their
30:46weight. This construction meant that
30:48even a creature as tall as a giraffe
30:50could weigh much less than one might
30:52expect, keeping it light enough to fly.
30:54Their wings, formed of a single tough
30:56membrane of skin rather than feathers,
30:58could be stretched across an enormous
30:59area to provide the lift. Together, all
31:02the adaptations allowed the terasaurs to
31:05break through the size barrier that
31:07constrained the birds, reaching
31:08dimensions that remain to this day the
31:10largest ever achieved by any flying
31:12creature. Kzel Kawatlas represents the
31:15absolute pinnacle of the evolution of
31:17flight. It is the largest animal ever to
31:19defy gravity. It's a creature as tall as
31:21a giraffe and as wide as a plane that
31:23walked among the very last of the
31:24dinosaurs. When the great mass
31:26extinction struck 66 million years ago,
31:28wiping out the dinosaurs, these Titanic
31:31flyers vanished along with them. And
31:33nothing so enormous has ever taken to
31:35the skies since. As we gaze up at the
31:38birds of our own age, the very largest
31:40of which could comfortably tuck itself
31:42beneath a single one of this creature's
31:43wings, it's worth remembering that the
31:45skies were once ruled by giants beyond
31:48anything alive today. And the greatest
31:50of them all was Ketzel Quatlas, the
31:52feathered serpent, the largest creature
31:54that ever flew.

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