WEBVTT

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I want you to close your eyes for just a second.

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Oh, we're doing a visualization exercise. Yeah,

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yeah. Just go with me here. I want you to imagine

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that you are a scientist, but it's the early

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19th century. OK. Mutton chops the whole nine

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yards. Exactly. And you're standing in this incredibly

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muddy quarry somewhere in the English countryside.

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Your hands are just completely raw from chipping

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away at this ancient unyielding stone. Right.

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You're using tools that by today's standards,

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I mean, they're basically just primitive pickaxes.

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Pretty much. And then suddenly your tool hits

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something completely different, not rock, bone.

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So you clear away the dirt. and the centuries

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of debris, and you manage to haul out this massive,

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unbelievably heavy, totally bizarre piece of

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fossilized moan. A monumental discovery. But

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here's the kicker. You hold it up, you wipe the

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sweat off your forehead, and you realize you

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have absolutely no idea what you are looking

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at. I mean, none. Yeah, you're holding a piece

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of this ancient puzzle, but the frustrating part

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is that nobody's ever seen the picture on the

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front of the box. Exactly. It's a profound sort

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of blindness. It really is. I mean, at that point

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in history, the very concept of a dinosaur, that

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word hadn't even be fully articulated yet. You

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are literally trying to comprehend an animal

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that defies everything you currently know about.

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Biology and that sense of profound mystery that

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complete shot in the dark. That is exactly where

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we're starting today. This is a good one We are

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going to trace the story of one specific creature,

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a genus of early Cretaceous sauropod dinosaur,

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known as Ornithopsis. And I'll tell you right

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now, we are not just going to list off a bunch

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of dry, boring facts about dinosaur bones. No,

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we are getting into the mud on this one. OK,

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let's unpack this. We are going to outline the

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mission here, which is to trace the incredibly

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complex, highly dramatic, and honestly sometimes

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just deeply petty history of how this one dinosaur

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was discovered, named... renamed and fought over

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by scientists for literally over a century. Massive

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egos, bitter academic rivalries, aggressive renaming

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campaigns, it's got it all. But before we get

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into the 19th century academic flame wars, I

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think we need a solid anchor. Good idea. For

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you listening, we need to know what the modern

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scientific consensus actually is. So if we look

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at ornithopsis through the lens of 21st century

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paleontology, what exactly are we dealing with?

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Let's set the baseline. Well. When we look at

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the surviving evidence today, we classify ornithopsis

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as an extinct genus of titanosauriform. Okay,

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titanosauriform. Break that down for us. Sure.

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To visualize that, you need to picture the classic

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sauropod body plan. You know, the massive four

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-legged giants with the long necks and the long

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tails. Like a brachiosaurus. Exactly like a brachiosaurus.

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The titanosauriforms were a remarkably successful,

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globally widespread subgroup of these giants.

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And ornithopsis. It was not a small animal. How

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big are we talking? Based on comparisons with

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more complete relatives, like the famous giraffe

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and titan, we estimate that the type specimen

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of ornithopsis belonged to a creature that was

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roughly 16 to 18 meters in length. Wait, 16 to

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18 meters? That is, I mean, what is that in feet,

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like 50 to 60 feet long? Yep, 52 to 59 feet is

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a good estimate. You are talking about an animal

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the exact size of a bowling lane. A very heavy

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bowling lane. Just walking around early Cretaceous

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Europe. Precisely. You would be looking at an

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animal that could comfortably peer over a three

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-story building. But, and here's the critical

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caveat, and honestly, it's the engine that drives

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all the historical drama we're about to discuss.

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Our entire modern understanding of this colossal

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animal is based on extremely fragmentary remains.

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Right. We don't have the whole thing. Not even

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close. We do not have a beautiful, pristine,

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fully articulated skeleton sitting in a museum

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hall somewhere. We have pieces. Fragments. Just

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individual bones that have been subjected to

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intense, almost obsessive scrutiny. In the name

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itself, ornithopsis, that feels like a very specific

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choice. What does that actually translate to?

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The name is the absolute crux of the entire controversy.

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Ornithopsis comes from Greek, ornus means bird,

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and opsus means likeness. Bird likeness. Yeah.

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Bird likeness. It is a heavy, massive dinosaur

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that was named for looking like a bird. And currently,

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the only species within this genus that modern

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science widely accepts as valid is Ornithopsis

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holkei. Which just seems like an incredible contradiction.

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A 60 -foot earth -shaking reptile being named

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for its bird -likeness. That's totally counterintuitive.

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And that contradiction is exactly why this story

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is so important for you here. This isn't just

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a biology lesson. It is a master class in how

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science actually works in the real world. Absolutely.

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We so often get taught that science is this clean,

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objective march toward the truth. You know, hypothesis,

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test, fact. But the story of ornithopsis shows

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that science is messy. It's full of blunders.

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Blunders, personal biases, huge leaps of logic.

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So let's go back to the very beginning. Let's

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look at the first blunder. Take us to 1833. Who

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is finding the first piece of this puzzle? So

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the story begins with a man named Gideon Algernon

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Mantel. Mantel, a pretty famous name in the field.

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Very famous. He was a prominent figure in early

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paleontology, though he was originally a medical

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doctor. And in 1833, he was studying fossils

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that had been pulled from the Tilgit forest.

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Which is part of the Wieldon formation in Southeast

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England, right? Correct. And the Wieldon formation

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is a pretty big deal in the dinosaur world. Oh,

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it's foundational. The Wieldon formation is this

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incredible sequence of sedimentary rocks that

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perfectly captures the terrestrial and freshwater

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environments of the early Cretaceous period.

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It is essentially the cradle of British dinosaur

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paleontology. So Mantell is looking through the

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material recovered covered from these rocks.

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Yeah, and he isolates a very specific fragmented

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bone. For those who like to track the museum

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catalog, Ringo, you're out there. This piece

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would eventually be purchased by the British

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Museum in 1838 and cataloged as specimen R2239.

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OK, so Mantel has this giant stony fragment on

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his desk. He has to call it something. What does

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he decide he's holding? He concludes that he

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is holding a piece of an iguanodon. Specifically,

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he believes it is the quadrate bone. The quadrate.

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That's a skull bone, right? Yes. The quadrate

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is a crucial part of the skull. It forms the

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actual joint that connects the lower jaw to the

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rest of the skull. Okay. I'm really trying to

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wrap my head around this. How does a medical

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doctor, someone who literally studies anatomy

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for a living, pick up a bone from a 50 -foot

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long -necked dinosaur and say, Uh huh, yes. This

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is clearly the jaw joint of an entirely different

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animal. What's fascinating here is that you really

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have to put yourself in his shoes. You know,

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you have to remember the extreme limitations

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of his era. Because it's 1833. Exactly. The word

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dinosaur hadn't even been invented yet. The concept

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of an entirely extinct group of giant, de -voosed

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terrestrial reptiles simply wasn't established.

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Right. What Mantel did know, for a fact, was

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that there was a large herbivorous reptile in

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that exact geological area. And he knew this

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because he and his wife had previously found

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fossilized teeth belonging to a creature he named

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Iguanodon. Right, Iguanodon. Because the teeth

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looked exactly like a modern iguana, just scaled

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up to monstrous proportions. Spot on. So his

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logic goes like this. He knows Iguanodon is in

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the wielding formation. Now he finds another

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massive, bizarre reptilian bone nearby. He looks

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closely at this new bone and notices it has these

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deep cavities, these hollowed out spaces inside

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the bone structure. Mantell misinterprets these

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spaces. He thinks they are what anatomists call

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a tympanic cavity. Like the tympanic membrane,

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the ear? Exactly, the hollow space in the skull

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that houses the middle ear. Ah, okay. I see where

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he's going. So his logic is it has an ear cavity,

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therefore it has to be a skull bone. And if it's

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a giant skull bone found in the same forest as

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giant iguanodon teeth. It must be the jaw joint

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of an iguanodon. It's wrong, but it's a very

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logical kind of wrong. It is an entirely rational

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hypothesis based on an incredibly limited data

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set. I mean, he was trying to fit an unknown

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piece into the only puzzle he knew existed. Right.

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But of course, science doesn't just let hypotheses

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sit unchallenged forever. And this is where the

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scrutiny begins. The plot pickings. We jump forward

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about 20 years to 1854, and one of the most towering,

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honestly intimidating figures of Victorian science

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enters the narrative. Richard Owen. Sort of Richard

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Owen? Richard Owen, the man who actually coined

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the word dinosaur. He decides to take a look

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at Mantell's supposed jawbone. Owen was a brilliant,

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highly rigorous comparative anatomist. He looks

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at specimen R2239, he reads Mantell's description,

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and he applies a much stricter standard of evidence.

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He wasn't one to just agree to be polite. Definitely

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not. Owen says essentially, Mantell, your anatomical

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interpretation isn't impossible. It could theoretically

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be a quadrate bone. But then Owen points out

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a massive fundamental flaw in Mantell's logic

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regarding what animal it actually belonged to.

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Because they didn't actually find the bone next

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to the teeth. Precisely. This is such a vital

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moment in the development of paleontological

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methodology. Owen introduces the strict requirement

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of direct association. The smoking gun. Right.

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He notes that this bone was found isolated. It

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was not articulated with an iguanodon skull,

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nor was it found lying directly next to definitive

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iguanodon teeth. And without that smoking gun,

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Owen basically says, we can't just assume they

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go together just because they lived in the same

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zip code. Correct. Owen argues that the early

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Cretaceous ecosystem of the Wealdon formation

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was likely complex and diverse. It wasn't just

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a Gwandodon walking around out there. So what

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did Owen think it was? Owen suggests alternatives.

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He says, since we don't have direct association,

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this bone might just as easily belong to another

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massive reptile we know from the era. like Streptospondylus,

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or perhaps Idiosaurus. Idiosaurus. A massive

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crocodile -like marine reptile. Or at least,

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so they thought at the time. It is such a great

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example of the scientific method in action, though.

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Owen is pulling back on the reins of assumption.

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He is introducing doubt where Mantell had certainty.

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It's good science. But the incredible irony here

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is that while Owen is being so incredibly careful

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about which animal it belongs to, both he and

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Mantell are still completely spectacularly wrong

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about what part of the body they are even looking

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at. Completely wrong. They are having this high

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-level serious academic debate about whose jaw

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joint it is, and it isn't a jaw joint at all.

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Not even close. Which brings us to a major paradigm

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shift. For decades, this bone just sits in the

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literature as a questionable skull fragment.

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It takes fresh eyes and a completely different

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specimen to finally crack the code. And this

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is where the story truly explodes. We move to

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the year 1870. Enter a scientist named Harry

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Govier Seeley. Sealy is a key player here. Now

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Sealy isn't looking at Mantell's original bone

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from the Tilgit forest. He is looking at a new

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but strikingly similar specimen that was found

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on the Isle of Wight. The Isle of Wight is another

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incredibly rich fossil locality just off the

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south coast of England. It features the exact

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same early Cretaceous deposits as the mainland

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wielding formation. So it's a sister site, essentially.

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Basically, yes. The British Museum had actually

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purchased this particular specimen back in 1853,

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again from Mantell's expansive collection. But

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it had just been sitting there in a drawer until

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Seeley finally gave it a thorough rigorous examination

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in 1870. It was cataloged as NHMUK PVR 28632.

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OK, so Seeley puts this massive rock on his desk.

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He compares it to the drawings and descriptions

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of the first bone, and he has an absolute eureka

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moment. What does Seeley see that Mantell and

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Owen completely missed? Seeley possesses a very

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different perspective on comparative anatomy.

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He looks at this aisle of white specimen and

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he immediately realizes they are not looking

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at the jaw. They are not looking at the skull

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at all. What are they looking at? These massive,

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heavy block -like bones are vertebrae. They are

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the individual segments that make up the spinal

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column of a gigantic animal. That is a massive

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course correction, from the head all the way

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down to the back. It changes everything about

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how you orient the fossil. But it goes deeper

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than just moving from the head to the back, right?

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Seeley also solves the mystery of the ear cavities

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that confuse Mantell. Yes, and this is where

00:12:29.279 --> 00:12:33.009
Seeley's genius truly shines. Remember Mantell's

00:12:33.009 --> 00:12:36.269
tympanic cavities, the spaces he thought housed

00:12:36.269 --> 00:12:39.330
the middle ear. Right, the ear holes. Seeley

00:12:39.330 --> 00:12:42.610
looks at those exact same indentations and hollows,

00:12:42.649 --> 00:12:44.710
but because he knows he is looking at a vertebra,

00:12:45.029 --> 00:12:47.269
specifically the centrum, which is the solid,

00:12:47.269 --> 00:12:50.710
cylindrical main body of the vertebra, he realizes

00:12:50.710 --> 00:12:53.149
those openings aren't for hearing. They are entry

00:12:53.149 --> 00:12:55.690
points. Entry points for what? Entry points for

00:12:55.690 --> 00:12:58.769
a complex system of air sacs. Seeley realizes

00:12:58.769 --> 00:13:01.309
that the bone is not solid. It has been invaded

00:13:01.309 --> 00:13:04.029
by pneumatic cavities. The massive vertebra is

00:13:04.029 --> 00:13:06.700
essentially hollowed out from the inside. Here's

00:13:06.700 --> 00:13:08.679
where it gets really interesting. I really want

00:13:08.679 --> 00:13:11.039
to make sure you listen and grasp the magnitude

00:13:11.039 --> 00:13:14.179
of this discovery. When paleontologists say the

00:13:14.179 --> 00:13:16.759
bone is pneumatized or filled with cavities,

00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:19.580
don't just picture a hollow plastic straw. No,

00:13:19.659 --> 00:13:22.159
no. Think of the internal structure of a modern

00:13:22.159 --> 00:13:24.960
commercial airplane wing. Or think of a dense,

00:13:25.259 --> 00:13:28.120
intricate honeycomb. It is a highly complex web

00:13:28.120 --> 00:13:31.320
of bony struts and incredibly thin walls. Nature's

00:13:31.320 --> 00:13:34.250
engineering. Exactly. It is an engineering marvel

00:13:34.250 --> 00:13:36.529
designed to maintain immense structural strength

00:13:36.529 --> 00:13:39.070
and hold literal tons of weight while being composed

00:13:39.070 --> 00:13:41.830
mostly of empty air. And Seeley looks at this

00:13:41.830 --> 00:13:45.210
ancient, supposedly primitive reptile and sees

00:13:45.210 --> 00:13:47.990
this advanced engineering. It was an astonishing

00:13:47.990 --> 00:13:51.240
revelation. Because in 1870, there were only

00:13:51.240 --> 00:13:54.080
a few places in the animal kingdom where anatomists

00:13:54.080 --> 00:13:57.379
had seen that specific type of internal weight

00:13:57.379 --> 00:13:59.580
-saving architecture. Where? In the bones of

00:13:59.580 --> 00:14:01.899
flying reptiles, the pterosaurs, and in the bones

00:14:01.899 --> 00:14:04.379
of modern birds. Which explains the name. This

00:14:04.379 --> 00:14:07.559
is why Seeley names his 1870 paper and the new

00:14:07.559 --> 00:14:10.740
genus Ornithopsis bird -likeness. Exactly. He

00:14:10.740 --> 00:14:13.840
names the species Ornithopsis hulkii to honor

00:14:13.840 --> 00:14:16.649
his colleague John Whitaker Hulk. But Seeley

00:14:16.649 --> 00:14:19.090
doesn't just stop at a cool name. He actually

00:14:19.090 --> 00:14:21.669
takes a massive, incredibly bold theoretical

00:14:21.669 --> 00:14:25.110
swing based on this hollow bone. He does. Seeley

00:14:25.110 --> 00:14:27.549
looks at the pneumaticity, the bird -like air

00:14:27.549 --> 00:14:30.190
sacs invading the spine of this terrestrial giant,

00:14:30.509 --> 00:14:33.210
and he proposes a wild evolutionary hypothesis.

00:14:33.649 --> 00:14:35.649
He suggests that ornithopsis might represent

00:14:35.769 --> 00:14:38.149
A transitional link. A transitional link. He

00:14:38.149 --> 00:14:40.409
theorizes it's a bridge between the flying pterosaurs

00:14:40.409 --> 00:14:42.789
and modern birds, and that it is allied with

00:14:42.789 --> 00:14:44.690
the dinosaurs. I mean, imagine dropping that

00:14:44.690 --> 00:14:46.990
theory into a Victorian academic society. It

00:14:46.990 --> 00:14:49.350
would not go over well. You have these scientists

00:14:49.350 --> 00:14:51.570
who are entirely accustomed to viewing ancient

00:14:51.570 --> 00:14:54.750
reptiles as sluggish, heavy, solid -boned, swamp

00:14:54.750 --> 00:14:58.490
-dwelling monsters. And Seeley stands up. points

00:14:58.490 --> 00:15:00.289
to a bone the size of a tree trunk and says,

00:15:00.570 --> 00:15:02.690
actually, gentlemen, its spine is built exactly

00:15:02.690 --> 00:15:04.889
like a sparrows. It's an evolutionary stepping

00:15:04.889 --> 00:15:08.549
stone. It completely upends the established worldview.

00:15:09.289 --> 00:15:11.950
It was a brilliant, incredibly forward thinking

00:15:11.950 --> 00:15:15.309
piece of anatomical deduction. But as you alluded

00:15:15.309 --> 00:15:18.570
to, it was deeply unpopular with certain factions

00:15:18.570 --> 00:15:21.289
of the scientific establishment, suggesting that

00:15:21.289 --> 00:15:24.629
a massive earthbound reptile shared such an intimate,

00:15:24.990 --> 00:15:27.269
sophisticated anatomical connection with birds.

00:15:27.759 --> 00:15:30.000
It was a bridge too far for many. And nobody

00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:32.059
hated a bridge too far more than Richard Owen.

00:15:32.340 --> 00:15:34.779
Oh, Owen was furious. Which brings us to the

00:15:34.779 --> 00:15:37.740
Great Retaliation. Let's look at the years 1875

00:15:37.740 --> 00:15:40.460
to 1876. It is really important to understand

00:15:40.460 --> 00:15:42.259
Richard Owen's position at this time. He was

00:15:42.259 --> 00:15:44.039
not just a scientist, he was an institution.

00:15:44.159 --> 00:15:46.259
Right, he was superintendent of the natural history

00:15:46.259 --> 00:15:49.639
departments of the British Museum. Yes, he wielded

00:15:49.639 --> 00:15:51.740
immense influence over how both the public and

00:15:51.740 --> 00:15:54.700
the academic world understood these extinct creatures.

00:15:55.039 --> 00:15:57.559
And he was notoriously territorial and often

00:15:57.559 --> 00:15:59.500
staunchly opposed to the emerging evolutionary

00:15:59.500 --> 00:16:02.100
theories of Darwin and his contemporaries like

00:16:02.100 --> 00:16:05.960
Seeley. So it's 1875. Owen has had five years

00:16:05.960 --> 00:16:09.600
to stew over Seeley's ornithopsis paper, five

00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:11.580
years of letting it bother him. Owen decides

00:16:11.580 --> 00:16:14.259
to revisit the fossils himself. Time to set the

00:16:14.259 --> 00:16:16.779
record straight in his mind. Right. He publishes

00:16:16.779 --> 00:16:19.820
a new assessment. Now, Owen isn't foolish. He

00:16:19.820 --> 00:16:22.620
does concede one major point to Seeley. He looks

00:16:22.620 --> 00:16:24.559
at the bones and admits, okay, fine, they are

00:16:24.559 --> 00:16:26.799
vertebrae. Mantell and I were wrong about the

00:16:26.799 --> 00:16:29.110
jaw joint. Which is big of him, I suppose. But

00:16:29.110 --> 00:16:32.009
that is the absolute limit of Owen's graciousness.

00:16:32.090 --> 00:16:35.629
Oh, absolutely. Owen violently rejects the biological

00:16:35.629 --> 00:16:38.190
implications of Seeley's work. He outright refuses

00:16:38.190 --> 00:16:40.450
to accept the bird connection. So how does he

00:16:40.450 --> 00:16:43.509
explain the hollow bones? Owen looks at the extreme

00:16:43.509 --> 00:16:45.610
hollowing of the vertebrae, the very feature

00:16:45.610 --> 00:16:47.970
that defines the specimen, and he essentially

00:16:47.970 --> 00:16:51.029
dismisses it. He argues that this bone is much

00:16:51.029 --> 00:16:53.590
closer to a different genus of dinosaur that

00:16:53.590 --> 00:16:56.509
he, Richard Owen, had recently discovered and

00:16:56.509 --> 00:16:59.190
named. Both of you are spondylists. Of course.

00:16:59.710 --> 00:17:02.269
It has to be related to his discovery. Let's

00:17:02.269 --> 00:17:04.250
track the academic pettiness here, because it

00:17:04.250 --> 00:17:07.710
is just staggering. Owen decides that since Seeley's

00:17:07.710 --> 00:17:10.430
evolutionary theory is wrong, Seeley's name for

00:17:10.430 --> 00:17:13.289
the dinosaur must also be completely eradicated.

00:17:13.450 --> 00:17:15.650
The total scorched earth policy. Owen starts

00:17:15.650 --> 00:17:18.849
a massive renaming campaign. He looks at Mantell's

00:17:18.849 --> 00:17:21.089
original bone from the 1830s, the one he looked

00:17:21.089 --> 00:17:25.230
at in 1854, and he officially names it Botryospondylus

00:17:25.230 --> 00:17:28.269
elongatus. He brings it into his own newly created

00:17:28.269 --> 00:17:31.009
genus. And then he turns his sights on the Isle

00:17:31.009 --> 00:17:33.859
of specimen, the exact specimen that Seeley had

00:17:33.859 --> 00:17:36.759
formally named Ornithopsis holkei five years

00:17:36.759 --> 00:17:39.640
prior. Bowen completely ignores Seeley's established

00:17:39.640 --> 00:17:41.740
name. He looks the Isle of Wight vertebrae and

00:17:41.740 --> 00:17:44.759
declares its new name is Botryospondylus magnus.

00:17:44.859 --> 00:17:47.339
It's astounding. He even gives them two different

00:17:47.339 --> 00:17:50.980
species names, Elongatus and Magnus, refusing

00:17:50.980 --> 00:17:53.279
to admit the two bones belong to the same type

00:17:53.279 --> 00:17:56.079
of animal. This is a blatant violation of the

00:17:56.079 --> 00:17:58.539
rules of scientific nomenclature, even as they

00:17:58.539 --> 00:18:01.690
existed then. The principle of priority dictates

00:18:01.690 --> 00:18:04.869
that the first formally published, validly described

00:18:04.869 --> 00:18:07.630
name for an organism is the one that stands.

00:18:08.369 --> 00:18:10.950
Seeley's ornithopsis, Hulki, had clear priority.

00:18:11.170 --> 00:18:13.589
So how does Owen justify steamrolling over the

00:18:13.589 --> 00:18:15.869
rules? I mean, he's the head of the museum. He

00:18:15.869 --> 00:18:18.349
justifies it through sheer authority and personal

00:18:18.349 --> 00:18:21.210
disbelief. Owen wrote a scathing critique where

00:18:21.210 --> 00:18:23.930
he explicitly attacked the very premise of Seeley's

00:18:23.930 --> 00:18:26.460
name. Because Owen refused to believe that the

00:18:26.460 --> 00:18:28.839
vertebrae of these massive dinosaurs were open

00:18:28.839 --> 00:18:31.420
and lightly constructed like a bird's, he declared

00:18:31.420 --> 00:18:33.539
that the name ornithopsis bird likeness was,

00:18:33.539 --> 00:18:36.880
and I quote, glaringly false. Glaringly false.

00:18:36.940 --> 00:18:38.839
He is literally saying, because I personally

00:18:38.839 --> 00:18:41.640
do not believe your anatomical theory, your validly

00:18:41.640 --> 00:18:43.920
published scientific name is a lie and therefore

00:18:43.920 --> 00:18:46.019
I am legally allowed to rename it after myself.

00:18:46.440 --> 00:18:49.119
It is breathtaking arrogance. It is the ultimate

00:18:49.119 --> 00:18:51.960
flex of institutional power. Owen is trying to

00:18:51.960 --> 00:18:54.359
rewrite the scientific record to align with his

00:18:54.359 --> 00:18:56.380
own philosophical view of what a dinosaur should

00:18:56.380 --> 00:18:58.200
be. And the saga doesn't even stop there, right?

00:18:58.420 --> 00:19:01.740
In 1876, just one year later, Owen changes his

00:19:01.740 --> 00:19:03.920
mind again about the Isle of White Specimen.

00:19:03.980 --> 00:19:07.019
Wait for it. The one he just named Bothreospondylus

00:19:07.019 --> 00:19:10.240
magnus. Yes. He decides it doesn't belong in

00:19:10.240 --> 00:19:13.200
Bothreospondylus anymore. You have got to be

00:19:13.200 --> 00:19:16.099
kidding. He creates yet another genus. chondrostiosaurus,

00:19:16.359 --> 00:19:18.640
based on some different wielding fossils. And

00:19:18.640 --> 00:19:21.539
he arbitrarily moves Sealy's specimen into this

00:19:21.539 --> 00:19:25.140
new genus, renaming it chondrostiosaurus magnus.

00:19:25.519 --> 00:19:27.440
So let me get this straight. Within a span of

00:19:27.440 --> 00:19:29.759
six years, the single hollowed out piece of spine

00:19:29.759 --> 00:19:32.140
has been called Ornithopsis hulkii by Sealy,

00:19:32.660 --> 00:19:35.319
then Bothrius bondilus magnus by Owen, and then

00:19:35.319 --> 00:19:37.640
chondrostiosaurus magnus by Owen again. Yeah.

00:19:37.869 --> 00:19:40.089
If you are a paleontologist trying to research

00:19:40.089 --> 00:19:42.650
this animal in the 1870s, you are pulling your

00:19:42.650 --> 00:19:46.150
hair out. It is a completely artificial taxonomic

00:19:46.150 --> 00:19:49.329
crisis created entirely by one man's ego. It

00:19:49.329 --> 00:19:51.569
perfectly illustrates that taxonomy is not merely

00:19:51.569 --> 00:19:54.109
a sterile filing system. It is a battlefield.

00:19:54.589 --> 00:19:56.750
It is heavily influenced by the personalities,

00:19:57.250 --> 00:20:00.009
the rivalries, and the theoretical biases of

00:20:00.009 --> 00:20:03.480
the people holding the pen. Owen used his immense

00:20:03.480 --> 00:20:06.259
prestige to try and bury a genuinely brilliant

00:20:06.259 --> 00:20:09.380
anatomical insight simply by throwing a mountain

00:20:09.380 --> 00:20:12.380
of new invalid Latin names on top of it. But

00:20:12.380 --> 00:20:15.500
history and science usually have a way of catching

00:20:15.500 --> 00:20:18.579
up to the truth. Owen's aggressive renaming campaign

00:20:18.579 --> 00:20:21.180
couldn't hide the physical reality of the bones

00:20:21.180 --> 00:20:23.980
forever. Which brings us to the cleanup crew.

00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:27.279
Let's move to 1879 and talk about a man named

00:20:27.279 --> 00:20:29.920
John Whittaker Hulke. Ah, John Whittaker Hulke.

00:20:30.160 --> 00:20:32.000
He's a fascinating figure. He was a highly respected

00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:34.519
surgeon and a paleontologist. And importantly,

00:20:34.980 --> 00:20:36.900
he is the very man that Harry Seeley honored

00:20:36.900 --> 00:20:39.880
when he coined the species name Ornithopsis hulkei.

00:20:40.319 --> 00:20:42.440
So Hulke clearly has a vested interest in this

00:20:42.440 --> 00:20:44.420
fight. It's his name on the line, too. Exactly.

00:20:44.519 --> 00:20:46.579
He steps into the ring to sort out the absolute

00:20:46.579 --> 00:20:48.619
mess Owen made of the wheeled and sauropod fossils.

00:20:49.160 --> 00:20:52.160
What is Hulke's approach here? Hulk takes a methodical,

00:20:52.440 --> 00:20:55.240
purely anatomical approach. He doesn't get into

00:20:55.240 --> 00:20:57.960
the philosophical weeds. He sits down with all

00:20:57.960 --> 00:21:01.279
the material, Mantell's bone, Seeley's bone,

00:21:01.799 --> 00:21:04.980
Owen's new specimens, and he systematically dismantles

00:21:04.980 --> 00:21:08.680
Owen's arguments. First and foremost, Hulk publicly

00:21:08.680 --> 00:21:10.819
defends Seeley against the charge that the name

00:21:10.819 --> 00:21:14.079
Ornithopsis was glaringly false. How does he

00:21:14.079 --> 00:21:16.259
prove Owen wrong? Does he argue the evolutionary

00:21:16.259 --> 00:21:18.279
theory? No, he doesn't even need to touch the

00:21:18.279 --> 00:21:20.490
evolutionary theory. Ulk simply points to the

00:21:20.490 --> 00:21:22.589
physical rock sitting on the table. The evidence.

00:21:22.869 --> 00:21:24.970
Yes. He points out that regardless of whether

00:21:24.970 --> 00:21:26.789
you believe this animal is related to birds,

00:21:26.869 --> 00:21:29.690
pterosaurs, or is just a weird, unique dinosaur,

00:21:30.390 --> 00:21:33.390
the physical, undeniable reality is that the

00:21:33.390 --> 00:21:35.970
bone is deeply hollowed out. It is lightly constructed.

00:21:36.089 --> 00:21:37.930
You can literally see the holes in it. Right.

00:21:38.329 --> 00:21:40.410
The internal camellia, the air chambers, are

00:21:40.410 --> 00:21:43.390
physically present. Therefore, Seeley's descriptive

00:21:43.390 --> 00:21:46.029
observation was perfectly accurate, and Owen's

00:21:46.029 --> 00:21:48.130
claim that it was false was entirely baseless.

00:21:48.450 --> 00:21:50.910
So Hulk completely validates Seeley science,

00:21:50.990 --> 00:21:53.450
and by doing so, he triggers the strict rules

00:21:53.450 --> 00:21:55.990
of taxonomy to deal with Owen's invented names.

00:21:56.569 --> 00:21:59.289
Exactly. This introduces a really important concept

00:21:59.289 --> 00:22:02.630
in taxonomy, junior objective synonyms. Okay,

00:22:02.670 --> 00:22:04.890
for anyone listening who isn't a museum curator,

00:22:05.369 --> 00:22:07.589
walk us through how a junior objective synonym

00:22:07.589 --> 00:22:10.680
works in practice. It goes back to that rule

00:22:10.680 --> 00:22:13.160
of priority we talked about. Think of it like

00:22:13.160 --> 00:22:15.799
trademarking a brand name. Seeley registered

00:22:15.799 --> 00:22:18.599
the trademark for this specific fossil in 1870

00:22:18.599 --> 00:22:21.700
with the name Ornithopsis holchi. Right. When

00:22:21.700 --> 00:22:23.960
Hulks scientifically reaffirmed that Seeley's

00:22:23.960 --> 00:22:26.559
work was accurate and valid, that locked the

00:22:26.559 --> 00:22:29.190
name in. So, what happens to the names Owen came

00:22:29.190 --> 00:22:32.630
up with in 1875 and 1876 for that exact same

00:22:32.630 --> 00:22:35.349
piece of bone? They get booted out. Yes. Because

00:22:35.349 --> 00:22:37.329
they were applied to the identical type specimen

00:22:37.329 --> 00:22:40.230
after a valid name already existed, they automatically

00:22:40.230 --> 00:22:42.769
become invalid. They are junior to the original,

00:22:43.109 --> 00:22:45.650
and they describe the exact same objective object.

00:22:46.029 --> 00:22:48.569
Therefore, they become junior objective synonyms.

00:22:49.049 --> 00:22:50.670
They're essentially tossed into the historical

00:22:50.670 --> 00:22:54.670
wastebasket. So, Bothria spondylus magnus. Gone.

00:22:55.470 --> 00:22:58.529
Condrastiosaurus Magnus. Gone. Owen's attempts

00:22:58.529 --> 00:23:01.089
to overwrite history are officially nullified.

00:23:01.609 --> 00:23:03.710
I have to say it is deeply satisfying to see

00:23:03.710 --> 00:23:06.849
the dry, bureaucratic rules of science used to

00:23:06.849 --> 00:23:09.430
perfectly counter academic bullying. It brought

00:23:09.430 --> 00:23:11.309
much needed order back to the classification.

00:23:11.640 --> 00:23:14.440
But Hulk didn't just stop at defending Sealy.

00:23:14.859 --> 00:23:17.700
He realized that this specific anatomical feature,

00:23:18.160 --> 00:23:20.680
the intense bird -like hollowing of the vertebrae,

00:23:20.880 --> 00:23:23.000
was actually a unifying characteristic for a

00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:25.000
lot of the fragmented giants found in the Wielden

00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:27.640
formation. So he starts bringing other lonely

00:23:27.640 --> 00:23:29.960
floating fossils into the ornithopsis family.

00:23:30.220 --> 00:23:32.099
Yes. He looked at other genera that had been

00:23:32.099 --> 00:23:33.940
named from the area. For example, he looked at

00:23:33.940 --> 00:23:36.480
a genus called Eukamorotus, which, ironically,

00:23:36.740 --> 00:23:39.400
Hulk himself had named back in 1870, based on

00:23:39.400 --> 00:23:41.539
different fordibral fragments. He named it himself.

00:23:41.740 --> 00:23:44.339
He did. And he realizes those fragments share

00:23:44.339 --> 00:23:47.339
the exact same internal architecture as ornithopsis.

00:23:47.839 --> 00:23:51.059
So he voluntarily sinks his own genus. He declares

00:23:51.059 --> 00:23:54.140
Eukamorotus to be a synonym of ornithopsis. He

00:23:54.140 --> 00:23:56.359
also looks at the rest of Owen's chondrosteosaurus

00:23:56.359 --> 00:23:58.779
fossils and realizes they belong there, too.

00:23:59.069 --> 00:24:02.190
He is consolidating a sprawling, messy group

00:24:02.190 --> 00:24:05.710
of fossils under one unified, anatomically justified

00:24:05.710 --> 00:24:08.509
name. It sounds like Hulk is the undisputed hero

00:24:08.509 --> 00:24:10.769
of the story, cleaning up the timeline and making

00:24:10.769 --> 00:24:13.049
everything neat and tidy. But we are talking

00:24:13.049 --> 00:24:16.369
about Victorian paleontology. It is literally

00:24:16.369 --> 00:24:18.589
never that simple, is it? Even the cleanup guy

00:24:18.589 --> 00:24:20.789
makes a mess. Oh, it is a brilliant example of

00:24:20.789 --> 00:24:23.009
how easily the literature can become tangled.

00:24:23.849 --> 00:24:26.799
In 1882, Hulk is publishing a new paper. He is

00:24:26.799 --> 00:24:29.000
describing some newly discovered pelvis material

00:24:29.000 --> 00:24:31.579
from the Wieldin, which he assigns to a new species

00:24:31.579 --> 00:24:35.039
he calls Ornithoxis eucamerotus. OK. But in the

00:24:35.039 --> 00:24:37.059
text of that paper, while trying to clarify the

00:24:37.059 --> 00:24:39.420
history of the genus, he makes a critical clerical

00:24:39.420 --> 00:24:41.779
error. What does he do? He casually suggests

00:24:41.779 --> 00:24:45.319
that Mantel's original bone from 1833 specimen

00:24:45.319 --> 00:24:48.829
R2239 the one they all thought was a jaw joint

00:24:48.829 --> 00:24:51.869
for decades, should be considered the definitive

00:24:51.869 --> 00:24:54.849
type specimen for the entire genus of ornithopsis.

00:24:55.069 --> 00:24:58.589
But wait, in 1879, he specifically wrote that

00:24:58.589 --> 00:25:01.509
Seeley's Isle of Whitebone was the type specimen.

00:25:01.750 --> 00:25:04.170
You can't just swap the anchor of a species halfway

00:25:04.170 --> 00:25:07.009
through your career. You absolutely cannot. The

00:25:07.009 --> 00:25:09.869
type specimen is the irreplaceable gold standard.

00:25:10.390 --> 00:25:13.089
It is the physical, tangible anchor that the

00:25:13.089 --> 00:25:15.769
conceptual name is permanently tied to forever.

00:25:16.089 --> 00:25:19.589
If you change the type specimen, you risk destabilizing

00:25:19.589 --> 00:25:22.210
the entire definition of the species. Hulk's

00:25:22.210 --> 00:25:24.269
contradiction created a massive headache in the

00:25:24.269 --> 00:25:26.269
scientific literature. Researchers didn't know

00:25:26.269 --> 00:25:28.109
which bone officially represented the animal.

00:25:28.450 --> 00:25:30.650
So how do they fix a mistake made by the guy

00:25:30.650 --> 00:25:32.710
who was supposed to be fixing the mistakes? It

00:25:32.710 --> 00:25:34.589
required more paperwork and intervention from

00:25:34.589 --> 00:25:36.849
other heavyweights in the field. It wasn't until

00:25:36.849 --> 00:25:39.690
1888 that a prominent paleontologist named Richard

00:25:39.690 --> 00:25:42.170
Leidecker, working in direct consultation with

00:25:42.170 --> 00:25:44.690
Harry Seeley himself, had to publish a formal

00:25:44.690 --> 00:25:46.769
official correction. They had to step in. They

00:25:46.769 --> 00:25:49.569
had to put it in writing, stating unequivocally

00:25:49.569 --> 00:25:53.150
that Hulk's 1882 suggestion was an error and

00:25:53.150 --> 00:25:55.710
permanently designating Seeley's Isle of White

00:25:55.710 --> 00:26:01.029
specimen, NHMUK PVR 28632 as the sole unalterable

00:26:01.029 --> 00:26:03.690
holotype for ornithopsis halki. It's like they

00:26:03.690 --> 00:26:06.329
had to issue a formal press release to the academic

00:26:06.329 --> 00:26:08.849
world. Please ignore the typo from six years

00:26:08.849 --> 00:26:10.609
ago. We are sticking with the original plan.

00:26:10.789 --> 00:26:13.529
It just highlights how delicate the scaffolding

00:26:13.529 --> 00:26:17.369
of scientific taxonomy really is. It relies entirely

00:26:17.369 --> 00:26:19.990
on meticulous record keeping. And everyone agreeing

00:26:19.990 --> 00:26:22.029
on the same rules. Right. And that scaffolding

00:26:22.029 --> 00:26:23.730
is about to be tested again because once the

00:26:23.720 --> 00:26:26.319
ornithopsis is locked in and people realize what

00:26:26.319 --> 00:26:29.279
to look for, those hollowed out vertebrae scientists

00:26:29.279 --> 00:26:31.440
suddenly start seeing ornithopsis everywhere.

00:26:31.519 --> 00:26:33.900
They do? This leads us into a period of wild

00:26:33.900 --> 00:26:36.259
expansion. Let's talk about the sprawling species

00:26:36.259 --> 00:26:39.119
of ornithopsis. This era is characterized by

00:26:39.119 --> 00:26:41.599
a practice very common in early paleontology.

00:26:41.789 --> 00:26:44.250
the creation of what we call wastebasket taxa.

00:26:44.470 --> 00:26:47.690
Wastebasket taxa. Yeah. When a distinct new genus

00:26:47.690 --> 00:26:50.410
is established like ornithopsis with its highly

00:26:50.410 --> 00:26:52.990
pneumatic bones, there is a strong temptation

00:26:52.990 --> 00:26:56.470
to take any new somewhat similar fragmented fossil

00:26:56.470 --> 00:26:58.769
you find and just toss it into that established

00:26:58.769 --> 00:27:01.089
genus rather than taking the professional risk

00:27:01.089 --> 00:27:04.210
of naming an entirely new dinosaur. So ornithopsis

00:27:04.210 --> 00:27:08.029
just becomes the default bucket for giant hollow

00:27:08.029 --> 00:27:11.089
bone thing. Precisely. And the first major addition

00:27:11.089 --> 00:27:13.309
to the bucket comes from a completely different

00:27:13.309 --> 00:27:16.369
geological era. Let's look at the Leeds discoveries

00:27:16.369 --> 00:27:20.109
in 1887. So John Whitaker -Hulk is back at it.

00:27:20.569 --> 00:27:22.509
He is examining a new collection of fossils,

00:27:22.750 --> 00:27:25.660
vertebrae, ribs, and pieces of a pelvis. These

00:27:25.660 --> 00:27:27.440
weren't found in the early Cretaceous, Weald,

00:27:27.519 --> 00:27:29.559
and Rocks of the South. These were discovered

00:27:29.559 --> 00:27:32.079
by a collector named Alfred Nicholson Leeds,

00:27:32.339 --> 00:27:34.579
far to the north in the Iceberry Jurassic deposits

00:27:34.579 --> 00:27:36.480
of Northamptonshire. And right away, there are

00:27:36.480 --> 00:27:38.220
massive red flags that this might not be the

00:27:38.220 --> 00:27:40.440
same animal, right? The differences were profound.

00:27:40.640 --> 00:27:43.319
First, the size was staggering. The new Iceberry

00:27:43.319 --> 00:27:45.579
specimens represented an animal that was substantially

00:27:45.579 --> 00:27:48.420
larger and much more robustly built than the

00:27:48.420 --> 00:27:50.700
ornithopsis from the Isle of Wight. OK, so bigger

00:27:50.700 --> 00:27:53.299
and beefier. But more importantly, the geology

00:27:53.299 --> 00:27:56.420
was wrong. These new fossils came from the lower

00:27:56.420 --> 00:27:58.819
collovian deposits of the Kalloways Formation.

00:27:59.200 --> 00:28:01.599
That is the Middle Jurassic period. So you have

00:28:01.599 --> 00:28:04.500
an animal that is way bigger, found in a totally

00:28:04.500 --> 00:28:06.339
different part of the country, and lived tens

00:28:06.339 --> 00:28:08.480
of millions of years earlier than the original

00:28:08.480 --> 00:28:10.559
ornithopsis. And Hulk looks at that and says,

00:28:10.640 --> 00:28:14.289
yep. Same genus. He did. Despite the vast temporal

00:28:14.289 --> 00:28:17.390
and morphological gaps, Hulk prioritized the

00:28:17.390 --> 00:28:20.269
structural similarities he saw in the bones over

00:28:20.269 --> 00:28:23.309
the geological context. He named this massive

00:28:23.309 --> 00:28:26.650
Jurassic creature Ornithopsis litsi, honoring

00:28:26.650 --> 00:28:30.190
the discoverer. Alfred Leeds. Wow. He also attempted

00:28:30.190 --> 00:28:32.549
to build out the family tree, placing this genus

00:28:32.549 --> 00:28:35.029
within a family called Atlantisauridae, suggesting

00:28:35.029 --> 00:28:37.589
it shared a close evolutionary kinship with another

00:28:37.589 --> 00:28:40.829
famous British sauropod, Sitiosaurus oxoniensis.

00:28:41.269 --> 00:28:43.450
Placing a middle Jurassic giant into an early

00:28:43.450 --> 00:28:47.109
Cretaceous genus is wild, but what I find genuinely

00:28:47.109 --> 00:28:49.150
hilarious about the whole ornithopsis Leedsi

00:28:49.150 --> 00:28:52.390
situation is the absolute inability of subsequent

00:28:52.390 --> 00:28:54.710
elite scientists to spell the man's name correctly.

00:28:54.809 --> 00:28:56.680
It's a running joke in the literature. You have

00:28:56.680 --> 00:28:58.819
these brilliant minds publishing in the most

00:28:58.819 --> 00:29:01.259
prestigious academic journals of the era, and

00:29:01.259 --> 00:29:03.619
they just butcher it. The taxonomic history of

00:29:03.619 --> 00:29:06.240
this specific specimen is completely riddled

00:29:06.240 --> 00:29:09.039
with typographical errors that became formalized

00:29:09.039 --> 00:29:11.640
in the literature. Hulk clearly named it Leedsci

00:29:11.640 --> 00:29:14.880
with a double I at the end. L -E -E -D -S -I

00:29:14.880 --> 00:29:18.519
-I. Right. But in 1895, Richard Lidecker refers

00:29:18.519 --> 00:29:21.400
to it as Polaurusaurus Leedsii. Dropping an I.

00:29:22.079 --> 00:29:25.579
A decade later, in 1905, Arthur Smith Woodward

00:29:25.579 --> 00:29:28.380
writes about it and calls it Cediosaurus Leedsi,

00:29:28.579 --> 00:29:31.339
also dropping the I. It proves that typos and

00:29:31.339 --> 00:29:33.880
bad autocorrects have existed long before computers.

00:29:34.400 --> 00:29:36.619
But even through the typos, you can see the uncertainty.

00:29:37.059 --> 00:29:40.059
They are shifting it from ornithopsis to Pellerosaurus

00:29:40.059 --> 00:29:42.539
to Cediosaurus. Nobody knows where this massive

00:29:42.539 --> 00:29:44.359
Jurassic beast actually belongs. It's just getting

00:29:44.359 --> 00:29:46.599
passed around. And the confusion isn't limited

00:29:46.599 --> 00:29:48.339
to the middle Jurassic. Let's bring in another

00:29:48.339 --> 00:29:51.819
outlier, the Mansel Humerus. This is a single,

00:29:51.940 --> 00:29:54.720
isolated arm bone found by J .C. Mansell back

00:29:54.720 --> 00:29:58.160
in 1868 in yet another distinct geological layer,

00:29:58.519 --> 00:30:00.599
the Kimmeridge clay formation, which is late

00:30:00.599 --> 00:30:02.859
Jurassic. The Kimmeridge clay is really famous

00:30:02.859 --> 00:30:05.380
for marine reptiles, but occasional dinosaur

00:30:05.380 --> 00:30:08.839
remains wash -in. Hulk examined this massive

00:30:08.839 --> 00:30:12.400
humerus in 1874. He recognized it belonged to

00:30:12.400 --> 00:30:15.059
a colossal sauropod, and he wanted to emphasize

00:30:15.059 --> 00:30:17.900
its strength. So he coined the name Ishkyrosaurus,

00:30:18.039 --> 00:30:20.380
meaning strong lizard. But the rigid rules of

00:30:20.380 --> 00:30:23.359
taxonomy strike again and Istrosaurus gets shot

00:30:23.359 --> 00:30:26.240
down. Why? It comes down to the absolute rule

00:30:26.240 --> 00:30:28.880
against homonyms in zoological nomenclature.

00:30:29.259 --> 00:30:30.960
You cannot have two different animals with the

00:30:30.960 --> 00:30:33.339
exact same genus name. Makes sense. All tried

00:30:33.339 --> 00:30:37.259
to polish Istrosaurus in 1874, but he was entirely

00:30:37.259 --> 00:30:39.519
unaware that the prolific and famous American

00:30:39.519 --> 00:30:42.539
paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope had already

00:30:42.539 --> 00:30:45.630
utilized a remarkably similar name. Israel Ethereum

00:30:45.630 --> 00:30:49.410
back in 1869. Ah, Cope. Yes, Cope used it for

00:30:49.410 --> 00:30:51.049
a fragmented fossil he initially thought was

00:30:51.049 --> 00:30:54.089
a mammal, but was later deemed a reptile. So

00:30:54.089 --> 00:30:56.250
Cope beat him to the punch and Hulk's name is

00:30:56.250 --> 00:30:58.730
locked out. The bone needs a new identity. Yes.

00:30:59.089 --> 00:31:02.130
So in 1887, Richard Leidecker steps in to fix

00:31:02.130 --> 00:31:04.869
the nomenclature issue. Leidecker looks at this

00:31:04.869 --> 00:31:07.769
giant late Jurassic arm bone and he decides to

00:31:07.769 --> 00:31:10.130
toss it into our rapidly expanding wastebasket.

00:31:10.329 --> 00:31:13.490
He renames it Ornithopsis mansileae. So let's

00:31:13.490 --> 00:31:15.369
review the ornithopsis family tree at this point.

00:31:15.529 --> 00:31:18.109
You have the original ornithopsis hulkii in the

00:31:18.109 --> 00:31:21.049
early Cretaceous. You have the massive ornithopsis

00:31:21.049 --> 00:31:23.509
leadsi in the middle Jurassic. And now you have

00:31:23.509 --> 00:31:25.690
ornithopsis mansili in the late Jurassic. It

00:31:25.690 --> 00:31:27.609
has become a meaningless catch -all term for

00:31:27.609 --> 00:31:30.029
a large British dinosaur with complicated bones.

00:31:30.589 --> 00:31:32.710
Exactly. And the debate over that single arm

00:31:32.710 --> 00:31:35.849
bone, the mansil humerus, is a perfect microcosm

00:31:35.849 --> 00:31:38.230
of how difficult paleontology is. That debate

00:31:38.230 --> 00:31:40.990
didn't end in the 1880s. It is still an active

00:31:40.990 --> 00:31:43.250
point of contention in modern literature. Really?

00:31:43.529 --> 00:31:45.289
What are paleontologists saying about it today?

00:31:45.500 --> 00:31:49.500
It is entirely unsettled. In 2006, researcher

00:31:49.500 --> 00:31:51.619
David Martill and his colleagues published a

00:31:51.619 --> 00:31:54.039
review where they actually chose to retain Lidecker's

00:31:54.039 --> 00:31:57.259
name, ornithopsis mancelli, primarily because

00:31:57.259 --> 00:31:59.519
Halk's original name was still blocked by Cope's

00:31:59.519 --> 00:32:02.920
prior usage. However, many of their peers strongly

00:32:02.920 --> 00:32:05.059
disagree. Some argue it should be grouped with

00:32:05.059 --> 00:32:07.700
a different sauropod genus, becoming Pelorosaurus

00:32:07.700 --> 00:32:09.980
mancelli. And others just throw their hands up

00:32:09.980 --> 00:32:12.900
completely, right? Precisely. In 2004, Paul Upchurch

00:32:12.900 --> 00:32:15.079
and his team published a massive comprehensive

00:32:15.079 --> 00:32:18.000
review of sauropod dinosaurs. They looked at

00:32:18.000 --> 00:32:20.079
the mansell humerus and officially designated

00:32:20.079 --> 00:32:23.900
it a nomen dubium, a dubious name. Dubious name?

00:32:23.940 --> 00:32:26.700
Yes. They concluded that a single isolated arm

00:32:26.700 --> 00:32:29.460
bone simply does not possess enough unique diagnostic

00:32:29.460 --> 00:32:31.960
anatomical features to definitively assign it

00:32:31.960 --> 00:32:34.450
to any specific genus. Further complicating matters,

00:32:34.690 --> 00:32:36.849
a 2010 study pointed out that the bone shares

00:32:36.849 --> 00:32:39.670
broad anatomical characteristics with two entirely

00:32:39.670 --> 00:32:41.670
different branches of the sauropod family tree.

00:32:42.210 --> 00:32:44.849
The Robocasauridae and the Titanosauriforms.

00:32:44.910 --> 00:32:47.049
It sits right on the morphological fence. It

00:32:47.049 --> 00:32:49.630
is the ultimate frustrating puzzle piece. It

00:32:49.630 --> 00:32:51.529
looks like it could belong to two different puzzles,

00:32:51.609 --> 00:32:53.809
but it doesn't quite complete the picture for

00:32:53.809 --> 00:32:56.349
either one. A paleontologist's nightmare. But

00:32:56.349 --> 00:32:59.369
wait, the ornithopsis wastebasket wasn't just

00:32:59.369 --> 00:33:03.109
catching British fossils. To add one final layer

00:33:03.109 --> 00:33:05.089
of complexity, we have to talk about the Swiss

00:33:05.089 --> 00:33:08.769
connection. The name literally crosses international

00:33:08.769 --> 00:33:12.450
borders. Yes. The confusion was exported. In

00:33:12.450 --> 00:33:16.609
1921, an incredibly prolific German paleontologist

00:33:16.609 --> 00:33:19.549
named Friedrich von Heren was studying dinosaur

00:33:19.549 --> 00:33:21.589
remains recovered from Jurassic deposits near

00:33:21.589 --> 00:33:24.970
Bern, Switzerland. Switzerland. Yeah. These deposits

00:33:24.970 --> 00:33:27.269
yielded a fragmentary but significant amount

00:33:27.269 --> 00:33:29.410
of material, including a long tail sequence.

00:33:29.640 --> 00:33:31.859
Hewane looked at these bones and described them

00:33:31.859 --> 00:33:34.980
under the name Ornithopsis crepinii. And I love

00:33:34.980 --> 00:33:36.759
that he literally put a question mark in the

00:33:36.759 --> 00:33:38.920
official scientific name, Ornithopsis question

00:33:38.920 --> 00:33:40.839
mark. He is formally publishing his own hesitation.

00:33:41.200 --> 00:33:43.900
The question mark is telling. It shows that even

00:33:43.900 --> 00:33:46.140
the author recognized the assignment was tentative

00:33:46.140 --> 00:33:49.119
at best. Hewane was trying to find a home for

00:33:49.119 --> 00:33:51.799
these bones among the known European giants.

00:33:52.460 --> 00:33:55.039
But as he continued to study sauropod evolution

00:33:55.039 --> 00:33:57.700
over the next few years, his understanding shifted

00:33:57.700 --> 00:34:01.779
dramatically. By 1927, Quayne published a major

00:34:01.779 --> 00:34:04.539
revision. What did he decide? He decided that

00:34:04.539 --> 00:34:06.960
the massive Middle Jurassic lead size specimen

00:34:06.960 --> 00:34:09.659
from England and his new Gruppini specimen from

00:34:09.659 --> 00:34:12.699
Switzerland possessed too many distinct differences

00:34:12.699 --> 00:34:15.280
to remain in the ornithopsis genus. So he pulls

00:34:15.280 --> 00:34:17.820
them out of the bucket. He does. He creates a

00:34:17.820 --> 00:34:20.500
brand new genus exclusively for them, which he

00:34:20.500 --> 00:34:23.500
named Sidiosauriscus. So the Swiss material becomes

00:34:23.500 --> 00:34:25.920
Sidiosauriscus Gruppini. But the journey for

00:34:25.920 --> 00:34:28.739
those Swiss bones didn't stop in 1927. They recently

00:34:28.739 --> 00:34:31.280
got yet another update, right? Indeed. It really

00:34:31.280 --> 00:34:33.280
demonstrates the iterative, self -correcting

00:34:33.280 --> 00:34:36.099
nature of the science. Nearly a century later,

00:34:36.179 --> 00:34:39.800
in the year 2020, a team of modern paleontologists

00:34:39.800 --> 00:34:42.500
conducted a rigorous, high -tech re -description

00:34:42.500 --> 00:34:45.219
of that original Swiss fossil material. And what

00:34:45.219 --> 00:34:48.260
did they find? Armed with a century of new comparative

00:34:48.260 --> 00:34:51.440
data and advanced imaging techniques, they concluded

00:34:51.440 --> 00:34:53.699
that the Swiss dinosaur was entirely distinct.

00:34:54.159 --> 00:34:56.320
It didn't belong in Ornithopsis, and it didn't

00:34:56.320 --> 00:34:59.000
belong in Cegiosauriscus. They finally gave it

00:34:59.000 --> 00:35:02.199
its own unique independent genus name. amansia.

00:35:02.260 --> 00:35:05.739
I love that. From an unknown bone in 1921 to

00:35:05.739 --> 00:35:08.840
a tentative ornithopsis, to C. de Sauriscus,

00:35:08.920 --> 00:35:11.280
and finally, 100 years later, it stands alone

00:35:11.280 --> 00:35:13.940
as amansia. It is a beautiful illustration of

00:35:13.940 --> 00:35:16.199
how science slowly, methodically whittles away

00:35:16.199 --> 00:35:18.179
the errors until it finds the truth. It takes

00:35:18.179 --> 00:35:20.079
time, but it gets there. So what does this all

00:35:20.079 --> 00:35:22.679
mean? Which brings us, at long last, out of the

00:35:22.679 --> 00:35:25.280
Victorian era, out of the wastebasket taxa, and

00:35:25.280 --> 00:35:27.860
into the stark light of modern science. Let's

00:35:27.860 --> 00:35:29.960
look at what we actually know today. When we

00:35:29.960 --> 00:35:32.019
strip away all the ego, the aggressive renaming,

00:35:32.239 --> 00:35:35.460
the typos, and the confusion, what is the physical

00:35:35.460 --> 00:35:38.239
reality of Ornithoxis holkei? If a paleontologist

00:35:38.239 --> 00:35:40.199
walks into the Natural History Museum today and

00:35:40.199 --> 00:35:43.639
looks at Seeley's holotype specimen, NHMUK PVR

00:35:43.639 --> 00:35:46.679
28632, what exactly are they seeing? When you

00:35:46.679 --> 00:35:49.119
look at the holotype today, completely divorced

00:35:49.119 --> 00:35:51.559
from all the historical drama, you are looking

00:35:51.559 --> 00:35:54.139
at an extraordinary piece of biological engineering.

00:35:54.880 --> 00:35:58.039
To be clear on what remains, it is a single vertebral

00:35:58.039 --> 00:36:00.530
centrum. The main body of the bone. Right. Right.

00:36:00.650 --> 00:36:03.329
It is missing the neural spine, the tall piece

00:36:03.329 --> 00:36:05.230
of bone that would stick up dorsally to anchor

00:36:05.230 --> 00:36:08.369
muscles. We only have the main cylindrical body

00:36:08.369 --> 00:36:12.070
of the vertebra. But that cylinder tells an incredibly

00:36:12.070 --> 00:36:14.469
detailed story. Walk us through the anatomy.

00:36:14.730 --> 00:36:16.869
What are the key features that define this creature?

00:36:17.309 --> 00:36:19.530
The most immediate and striking feature, the

00:36:19.530 --> 00:36:22.250
one Seeley originally noticed, is that it is

00:36:22.250 --> 00:36:24.829
intensely pneumatized. It is absolutely riddled

00:36:24.829 --> 00:36:27.789
with cavities. In modern paleontological terminology,

00:36:28.269 --> 00:36:31.150
we refer to these specific complex internal chambers

00:36:31.150 --> 00:36:34.150
and sauropod vertebrae as chameleon. Going back

00:36:34.150 --> 00:36:36.269
to our airplane wing analogy, it's that internal

00:36:36.269 --> 00:36:38.610
honeycomb structure. Precisely. The presence

00:36:38.610 --> 00:36:41.309
of these extensive chameleon is definitive proof

00:36:41.309 --> 00:36:44.329
that the living animal possessed a highly complex

00:36:44.329 --> 00:36:47.289
respiratory system. It had air sacs that extended

00:36:47.289 --> 00:36:49.550
outward from its lungs and literally invaded

00:36:49.550 --> 00:36:51.849
the bones of its skeleton. Just like modern birds.

00:36:52.230 --> 00:36:55.250
Exactly. This served multiple critical functions.

00:36:56.050 --> 00:36:58.329
It drastically reduced the overall weight of

00:36:58.329 --> 00:37:00.590
the massive skeleton, allowing the animal to

00:37:00.590 --> 00:37:03.329
grow larger without collapsing, and it significantly

00:37:03.329 --> 00:37:06.250
increased respiratory efficiency, which is vital

00:37:06.250 --> 00:37:09.030
for a multi -ton animal to power its metabolism.

00:37:09.369 --> 00:37:11.670
Okay, so we have the internal honeycomb. What

00:37:11.670 --> 00:37:14.070
about the external shape? The external morphology

00:37:14.070 --> 00:37:16.530
is highly distinct. The vertebra is described

00:37:16.530 --> 00:37:19.250
as being narrow and tall. It shows what we call

00:37:19.250 --> 00:37:22.389
lateral compression. Running along the bottom

00:37:22.389 --> 00:37:24.869
surface, the underside of the bone, is a very

00:37:24.869 --> 00:37:27.630
prominent, distinct ridge, which we call a ventral

00:37:27.630 --> 00:37:30.590
ridge. Narrow, tall, and a keel on the bottom.

00:37:30.829 --> 00:37:34.449
What else? It is strongly opisicolous. This describes

00:37:34.449 --> 00:37:37.530
the articulation points, how the individual vertebrae

00:37:37.530 --> 00:37:39.489
physically connect to one another to form the

00:37:39.489 --> 00:37:42.739
spine. An epistacholus vertebra has a centrum

00:37:42.739 --> 00:37:45.699
that is deeply concave at the back end and strongly

00:37:45.699 --> 00:37:48.260
convex at the front end. So they slot together

00:37:48.260 --> 00:37:50.739
like a massive ball and socket joint, giving

00:37:50.739 --> 00:37:53.119
the neck or back both strength and a degree of

00:37:53.119 --> 00:37:55.800
flexibility. Exactly. You've got it. And finally,

00:37:55.920 --> 00:37:58.800
there is one more crucial external feature. On

00:37:58.800 --> 00:38:01.679
the side of the vertebra, there is a deeply inset

00:38:01.679 --> 00:38:04.539
hollowed out depression. This is called a pleurical.

00:38:05.099 --> 00:38:08.079
In the ornithopsis holotype, This clerical is

00:38:08.079 --> 00:38:11.159
subtriangular in shape and it is massive. It

00:38:11.159 --> 00:38:13.179
extends over two thirds of the entire length

00:38:13.179 --> 00:38:15.659
of the centrum. So we have this laundry list

00:38:15.659 --> 00:38:18.340
of very specific traits. The honeycomb camele,

00:38:18.639 --> 00:38:21.320
the narrow and tall shape, the ventral keel,

00:38:21.519 --> 00:38:24.500
the ball and socket joints and this massive triangular

00:38:24.500 --> 00:38:28.179
hollow on the side. Why does all of this specific

00:38:28.179 --> 00:38:30.940
geometry matter? Does it actually prove anything

00:38:30.940 --> 00:38:33.900
or is it just descriptive? If we connect this

00:38:33.900 --> 00:38:37.309
to the bigger picture. It matters immensely because,

00:38:37.610 --> 00:38:39.590
in combination, those features are diagnostic.

00:38:39.949 --> 00:38:42.190
For a very long time, because the wielden fossils

00:38:42.190 --> 00:38:44.510
are so fragmented and because the history of

00:38:44.510 --> 00:38:47.230
their naming was so chaotic, many modern researchers

00:38:47.230 --> 00:38:49.130
were inclined to just throw the entire genus

00:38:49.130 --> 00:38:50.869
out. They just didn't want to deal with it. Right.

00:38:51.010 --> 00:38:52.869
They considered the fossils too scrappy to be

00:38:52.869 --> 00:38:55.010
scientifically useful, labeling them as dubious

00:38:55.010 --> 00:38:57.889
or intermediate forms. They wanted to put ornithopsis

00:38:57.889 --> 00:39:01.960
itself into the wastebasket? Yes. But in 1995,

00:39:02.420 --> 00:39:05.099
a researcher named William Blows published a

00:39:05.099 --> 00:39:08.219
critical reassessment. He meticulously analyzed

00:39:08.219 --> 00:39:10.739
those specific traits. He demonstrated that the

00:39:10.739 --> 00:39:13.340
unique combination of the extreme lateral compression,

00:39:13.880 --> 00:39:16.800
the narrow and tall profile, and that specific

00:39:16.800 --> 00:39:19.380
ventral ridge are not just random variations.

00:39:19.780 --> 00:39:23.320
They are definitive, unique identifiers. Blow's

00:39:23.320 --> 00:39:25.519
confirmed that these traits prove the bone belongs

00:39:25.519 --> 00:39:28.500
to a distinct, highly derived titanosauriform.

00:39:28.739 --> 00:39:31.659
So Blow's rescues ornithopsis from obscurity.

00:39:32.010 --> 00:39:34.570
He clears away the dubious label and proves that

00:39:34.570 --> 00:39:36.909
Seeley's Isle of Wight fossil isn't just a generic

00:39:36.909 --> 00:39:39.369
piece of rock. It is a specific, scientifically

00:39:39.369 --> 00:39:42.409
valid animal. Ornithopsis hulkii earns its permanent

00:39:42.409 --> 00:39:44.369
place on the dinosaur family tree. It finally

00:39:44.369 --> 00:39:46.309
gets its due. But the incredible thing is the

00:39:46.309 --> 00:39:48.250
story of Ornithopsis isn't just confined to the

00:39:48.250 --> 00:39:50.349
Isle of Wight or to the dusty archives of Victorian

00:39:50.349 --> 00:39:53.250
England. This 130 year old anatomical debate

00:39:53.250 --> 00:39:55.349
actually has direct relevance to discoveries

00:39:55.349 --> 00:39:57.570
being made right now. Let's bring the timeline

00:39:57.570 --> 00:39:59.909
all the way into the present day. It is a perfect

00:39:59.909 --> 00:40:02.619
demonstration of how his historical paleontology

00:40:02.619 --> 00:40:06.280
continues to inform modern fieldwork. In 2023,

00:40:06.820 --> 00:40:09.300
a fascinating new paper was published documenting

00:40:09.300 --> 00:40:12.460
a recent discovery in northwestern Germany. Yes,

00:40:12.679 --> 00:40:15.219
paleontologists were excavating in an area called

00:40:15.219 --> 00:40:18.179
Belve. They are working in a limestone quarry

00:40:18.179 --> 00:40:21.219
that dates to the late Beremian to early action

00:40:21.219 --> 00:40:24.300
stages that puts it right in the sweet spot of

00:40:24.300 --> 00:40:26.880
the early Cretaceous period, roughly the exact

00:40:26.880 --> 00:40:29.260
same age as the Wielden formation in England.

00:40:29.659 --> 00:40:31.880
Right. And during this excavation, they uncover

00:40:31.880 --> 00:40:35.219
a fragmentary dorsal vertebra, a piece of a backbone.

00:40:35.659 --> 00:40:37.619
And when the German paleontologists brought this

00:40:37.619 --> 00:40:39.760
bone back to the lab and cleaned it up, they

00:40:39.760 --> 00:40:42.320
didn't just see a generic sauropod fossil. They

00:40:42.320 --> 00:40:44.400
looked at the geometry of the bone and they saw

00:40:44.400 --> 00:40:46.380
something distinctly familiar. What did they

00:40:46.380 --> 00:40:49.079
see? Did it have the honeycomb? It was more about

00:40:49.079 --> 00:40:51.800
the external morphology. The researchers noted

00:40:51.800 --> 00:40:54.420
that this new German specimen possessed a very

00:40:54.420 --> 00:40:57.420
specific shape. It shared the distinct lateral

00:40:57.420 --> 00:41:00.380
compression, the uniquely narrow and tall profile

00:41:00.380 --> 00:41:02.780
that William Blows and others had confirmed was

00:41:02.780 --> 00:41:05.179
diagnostic of ornithopsis. So they find a bone

00:41:05.179 --> 00:41:08.139
in Germany that perfectly matches the architectural

00:41:08.139 --> 00:41:10.179
blueprint of the bone from the Isle of Wight.

00:41:10.699 --> 00:41:13.730
Precisely. Because of that shared, highly specific

00:41:13.730 --> 00:41:16.570
diagnostic trait, the researchers formally referred

00:41:16.570 --> 00:41:19.489
the new German specimen to the genus Ornithopsis.

00:41:19.989 --> 00:41:21.809
However, in their publication, they elicited

00:41:21.809 --> 00:41:25.150
it as Ornithopsis make. And there is that question

00:41:25.150 --> 00:41:27.369
mark again. Why the hesitation this time? Why

00:41:27.369 --> 00:41:29.429
not just call it Ornithopsis holkei and be done

00:41:29.429 --> 00:41:32.909
with it? The S -make is a crucial piece of scientific

00:41:32.909 --> 00:41:36.849
shorthand. It stands for species uncertain. The

00:41:36.849 --> 00:41:39.489
researchers are making a very careful calibrated

00:41:39.489 --> 00:41:41.670
statement. They're saying, based on the distinct

00:41:41.670 --> 00:41:43.869
lateral compression we can observe, we are confident

00:41:43.869 --> 00:41:47.349
this bone belongs to the genus Ornithopsis. However,

00:41:47.489 --> 00:41:49.869
the preservation of this specific fossil is too

00:41:49.869 --> 00:41:52.489
poor, or it is missing too many other key features

00:41:52.489 --> 00:41:54.869
for us to confidently assign it to the known

00:41:54.869 --> 00:41:58.590
bready species, Oholki, or to justify naming

00:41:58.590 --> 00:42:02.030
a brand new German species. It's the modern equivalent

00:42:02.030 --> 00:42:04.329
of Owen's skepticism, but applied correctly.

00:42:04.690 --> 00:42:07.820
They are saying, This is our best, most educated

00:42:07.820 --> 00:42:10.579
hypothesis based on the morphological evidence

00:42:10.579 --> 00:42:12.860
we have right now. But we are waiting for better,

00:42:13.079 --> 00:42:16.599
more complete material before we etch a new species

00:42:16.599 --> 00:42:19.840
name in stone. Exactly. It is scientific rigor

00:42:19.840 --> 00:42:22.880
in practice. And despite the fragmentary nature,

00:42:23.460 --> 00:42:26.500
the discovery itself is highly significant. Because

00:42:26.500 --> 00:42:29.380
it completely changes our understanding of where

00:42:29.380 --> 00:42:31.880
these animals lived. We went from a single dinosaur

00:42:31.880 --> 00:42:34.480
isolated on the Isle of Wight to realizing that

00:42:34.480 --> 00:42:38.099
these massive bird -boned titanosauriforms were

00:42:38.099 --> 00:42:41.219
roaming across a massive swath of what is now

00:42:41.219 --> 00:42:44.260
Europe. A huge geographic expansion. And based

00:42:44.260 --> 00:42:46.800
on the size of the vertebra found in Balve, the

00:42:46.800 --> 00:42:49.340
researchers estimate this specific German individual

00:42:49.340 --> 00:42:52.679
was slightly smaller than the massive 16 to 18

00:42:52.679 --> 00:42:55.320
meter giants from Britain. But it proves they

00:42:55.320 --> 00:42:57.760
were an established widespread part of the early

00:42:57.760 --> 00:43:00.099
Cretaceous ecosystem. It connects the dots. And

00:43:00.099 --> 00:43:02.380
I think that incredible geographic lead is the

00:43:02.380 --> 00:43:04.599
perfect place to wrap up our deep dive today.

00:43:04.969 --> 00:43:06.809
Let's take a step back and look at the sheer

00:43:06.809 --> 00:43:09.130
scale of the story we just traced. It's quite

00:43:09.130 --> 00:43:12.170
a journey. We started all the way back in 1833,

00:43:12.610 --> 00:43:15.489
in the muddy Tilgit forest, with Gideon Mantell

00:43:15.489 --> 00:43:18.030
holding a hollowed out piece of spine and completely

00:43:18.030 --> 00:43:20.989
understandably, but totally incorrectly, guessing

00:43:20.989 --> 00:43:24.630
it was the jaw joint of an iguanodon. We watched

00:43:24.630 --> 00:43:27.050
Richard Owen apply a rigorous standard of evidence

00:43:27.050 --> 00:43:29.750
to disprove Mantell, only to completely fail

00:43:29.750 --> 00:43:32.210
to recognize what the bone actually was himself.

00:43:32.510 --> 00:43:34.909
We witnessed Harry Seeley's brilliant stroke

00:43:34.909 --> 00:43:37.750
of insight in 1870, looking at those cavities,

00:43:37.969 --> 00:43:40.469
realizing there were air sacs just like a bird's

00:43:40.469 --> 00:43:43.010
and coining the name ornithopsis. And then we

00:43:43.010 --> 00:43:45.489
saw the scientific process briefly derailed by

00:43:45.489 --> 00:43:47.849
human ego. We watched Richard Owen through a

00:43:47.849 --> 00:43:50.190
taxonomic temper tantrum, aggressively inventing

00:43:50.190 --> 00:43:52.869
names like Bothrius Bondylus and Condrastiosaurus,

00:43:53.130 --> 00:43:55.449
simply because he found the idea of a bird -like

00:43:55.449 --> 00:43:58.210
giant reptile philosophically offensive. We saw

00:43:58.210 --> 00:44:00.469
John Whittaker, Hulk, step in to act as the referee,

00:44:00.929 --> 00:44:03.170
using strict rules of nomenclature to toss Owen's

00:44:03.170 --> 00:44:05.389
names in the bin, even as Hulk made his own clerical

00:44:05.389 --> 00:44:07.619
errors along the way. We tracked how the name

00:44:07.619 --> 00:44:10.380
ornithopsis ballooned into a wastebasket for

00:44:10.380 --> 00:44:13.400
massive bones from entirely different geological

00:44:13.400 --> 00:44:16.000
eras, from the Middle Jurassic of England to

00:44:16.000 --> 00:44:18.739
the Late Jurassic of Switzerland, before modern

00:44:18.739 --> 00:44:21.300
analytical techniques slowly, systematically

00:44:21.300 --> 00:44:24.320
pruned those eras away. And finally, we arrived

00:44:24.320 --> 00:44:26.699
at the modern day, where that heavily debated,

00:44:26.940 --> 00:44:29.579
much maligned piece of Isle of White Bone is

00:44:29.579 --> 00:44:32.099
recognized as a vital key to understanding an

00:44:32.099 --> 00:44:34.960
entire lineage of 16 meter long, air -filled

00:44:34.960 --> 00:44:37.579
titans that roamed from Britain to Germany. If

00:44:37.579 --> 00:44:40.380
there is one overarching takeaway from this entire

00:44:40.380 --> 00:44:43.599
saga, it is that science is fundamentally, unavoidably

00:44:43.599 --> 00:44:47.010
an iterative process. It is a long, winding journey,

00:44:47.369 --> 00:44:50.170
not a sudden arrival at absolute truth. It requires

00:44:50.170 --> 00:44:52.050
critical thinking. It requires individuals like

00:44:52.050 --> 00:44:54.150
Seeley being willing to look at a structure that

00:44:54.150 --> 00:44:56.510
everyone else assumes is a tympanic cavity and

00:44:56.510 --> 00:44:58.750
ask, what if we are all wrong? What if that is

00:44:58.750 --> 00:45:00.530
an air sack? You have to question the baseline.

00:45:01.150 --> 00:45:03.170
Exactly. And crucially, it requires the humility

00:45:03.170 --> 00:45:05.530
to constantly refine and overwrite our understanding

00:45:05.530 --> 00:45:08.250
as new data, like a fragmentary bone pulled from

00:45:08.250 --> 00:45:11.510
a German limestone quarry in 2023, emerges to

00:45:11.510 --> 00:45:14.639
test our models. Science is undeniably messy

00:45:14.639 --> 00:45:17.139
because it is conducted by humans. We have egos,

00:45:17.239 --> 00:45:20.059
we make typos, we hold on to outdated philosophies.

00:45:20.420 --> 00:45:23.219
But the beauty of the scientific method is that

00:45:23.219 --> 00:45:26.000
over decades, and sometimes over centuries, it

00:45:26.000 --> 00:45:29.699
slowly self -corrects. The ego fades away, the

00:45:29.699 --> 00:45:32.800
junior synonyms get deleted, and the physical

00:45:32.800 --> 00:45:35.760
truth of the animal remains. Well said. And before

00:45:35.760 --> 00:45:38.099
we let you go, I want to leave you with a final

00:45:38.099 --> 00:45:40.820
lingering thought to mull over. We have just

00:45:40.820 --> 00:45:43.750
spent the last deep dive tracing how a single

00:45:43.750 --> 00:45:47.010
genus, Ornithopsis, spent nearly a century bouncing

00:45:47.010 --> 00:45:49.050
between completely different identities. It was

00:45:49.050 --> 00:45:51.789
called a jawbone, it was called both Rheospondylus,

00:45:51.869 --> 00:45:54.329
it was called Chondrostorosaurus, and its cousins

00:45:54.329 --> 00:45:57.570
were called Cetiosuriscus and Amansia. And all

00:45:57.570 --> 00:45:59.449
of this confusion happened simply because the

00:45:59.449 --> 00:46:01.829
fossil evidence was fragmentary and the scientists

00:46:01.829 --> 00:46:03.889
looking at it couldn't see the big picture. They

00:46:03.889 --> 00:46:06.570
only had a few puzzle pieces? Given that incredibly

00:46:06.570 --> 00:46:08.789
messy history, I want you to think about the

00:46:08.789 --> 00:46:10.949
natural history museums of the world right now.

00:46:11.230 --> 00:46:14.510
Think about the millions of fragmented, unsorted,

00:46:14.769 --> 00:46:18.090
or hastily categorized fossils sitting in dark

00:46:18.090 --> 00:46:21.050
dusty drawers in London, Berlin, New York, and

00:46:21.050 --> 00:46:24.559
Paris. How many completely undiscovered, missing

00:46:24.559 --> 00:46:26.860
branches of the dinosaur family tree are sitting

00:46:26.860 --> 00:46:29.320
in those drawers right now, mislabeled with a

00:46:29.320 --> 00:46:31.519
name coined by a Victorian scientist who is just

00:46:31.519 --> 00:46:34.380
taking a wild guess? How many spectacular new

00:46:34.380 --> 00:46:36.960
species? How many paradigm -shifting ancient

00:46:36.960 --> 00:46:39.380
monsters are just waiting in the dark for a modern

00:46:39.380 --> 00:46:41.860
-day Harry Seeley to open the drawer, look at

00:46:41.860 --> 00:46:44.719
the bones with fresh, unbiased eyes, and completely

00:46:44.719 --> 00:46:47.420
rewrite the history of life on Earth? Now that

00:46:47.420 --> 00:46:49.019
is something to think about. Thanks for taking

00:46:49.019 --> 00:46:51.059
the plunge with us. Keep questioning, keep digging,

00:46:51.480 --> 00:46:53.119
and we will see you on the next Deep Dive.