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this stuff every day when growing is

your best defense gaining weight is

serious business

so sauroposeidon does away with

time-consuming tasks like chewy you

could just swallow that stuff and let

your giant stomach mash it up for you

you can move in a lot more food per unit

time and you could get a lot bigger

surah poseidon's 52 chisel like teeth

are perfectly designed for the job

they can rake leaves and twigs right up

a tree

they've got these big teeth that are

just cropping devices they just bite

down on a branch there takes the whole

branch or strips of leaves and needles

off and then swallow it down

to be able to digest this huge volume of

food and grow big enough to avoid attack

requires a stomach as large as a ton

that's as big as a swimming pool and

it's filled with acids so concentrated

it can dissolve tired I mean it had to

be able to hold maybe a ton of more of

plant material at a time and we're

talking about something huge

surprisingly it isn't something huge

which allows these giant herbivores to

grow big enough to be all but invincible

in fact it's something incredibly small

something needed your slack

below sauroposeidon stomach our two

gigantic organs called Sica similar to

our appendix humans stop using an

appendix millions of years ago when we

started eating meat a sauroposeidon

would die without

the Sica are home to millions of

microscopic organisms

they break down the tough fibrous walls

of plant cells

it has this whole little world inside of

microbes that's helping it digest its

food that's send in little tendrils to

help break open those cell walls help

liberate those neutrals and that's what

helps animals survive

and the result of this incredible feat

of Engineering

one final trick that keeps predators at

bay sauropods are probably burping and

farting almost continuously because

that's what big plant eaters do and they

would have been noisy smelly unpleasant

animals to be around despite all these

adaptations all of this specialized

biology that is allowed sauroposeidon to

grow to mammoth proportions there is one

part of its body that simply hasn't kept

up its brain animals like sauroposeidon

are really the poster child for the dumb

dinosaur sauroposeidon has a brain less

than the thousands of its body size the

equivalent of a human being with a brain

the size of a pea lobes for both sight

and smell are tight areas controlling

information analysis learning in complex

thought barbarically development

if you look at the size of their brain

you actually have to kind of wonder how

these animals managed but they did

manage physical size makes up for every

other shortcoming surviving for 15

million years these mammoth creatures

spread out across the globe onto every

continent except Antarctica

but there's another dinosaur that

doesn't rely on size it uses an even

more unusual drink to keep off the me

the most sophisticated communication

system ever developed in the prehistoric

there's one vegetarian that lacks any

obvious weaponry

a pair of psaropoulos is a duckbill

named for its duck-like be weighing in

at almost four times it's not tiny but

facing off against a 7-ton predator like

a t-rex would be suicide

the fangs no Armour at law if spikes are

horns anywhere in the body this seemed

to be large vulnerable targets

Parasurama less range across a fast area

more than a hundred thousand square

miles from Alberta Canada to New Mexico

a region with more than its share of

vicious predators

when has puzzled all of us is how did

they protect themselves

the most important clue to this mystery

is buried inside their skull

Parasurama les has the biggest brain of

all herbivores

and one part of that brain is abnormally

large the area responsible for hearing

and interpreting sounds it's called the

auditory cortex

what was the surprise is the higher

centers of their brain are very large

and suggested something very different

is going on in Parasaurolophus in its

kin than most other of these of these

plant eating dinosaurs

but how does an advanced auditory cortex

help a para psaropoulos defend itself

against monster Connor

first of all it's acute hearing can

detect an approaching predator from

miles away

then most importantly it can react

deploying an unusual weapon

a distinctive sound that originates deep

inside a strangely shaped head crest

the crest contains the animals nasal

cavity a tube that loops around twice

creating a chamber eight feet long calls

vibrations originating in the voice box

travel along these tubes like the

chambers of a trombone those tubes

amplify and lower that Center the result

an extremely low frequency huh even

deeper than a foghorn each species has

its own distinct shape each species

without its own distinct cell

the arrangement of the chambers inside

each animal is unique

and the sound they create like a finger

these calls appear psaropoulos is

primary form of defense they are

communicative social beings that live in

herds parecer offal Asst have learned

their safety in numbers an isolated

Parasaurolophus would be a dinosaur in

trouble it's gonna have to look out for

predators on its own and therefore the

long individual might do its call to say

I'm alone and wait to hear for other

members of its herd to make the

corresponding call

this tactic is still used today on the

plains of Africa

if you look at various species of plant

eaters they live together in groups and

if one of them spots a predator they can

Minnie or hoot and let the rest of the

herd know so that they can keep on alert

where if the Predators are right here

they can all break out into a run and

run away from the attacker

Parasurama accessibility to communicate

complex messages is a tremendous

defensive advantage using its sensitive

hearing these creatures can detect a

predator far off in the distance

then send out an alarm call to warn the

her

more effective still low-frequency

sounds with their long wavelengths

travel much further than high

frequencies these are the kinds of

sounds that can be transmitted over very

long distances this extremely low

frequency sound is called infrasound and

could travel for miles

you can reduce the noise so low and so

deep it not only goes through the air it

goes through the rocks and through the

soil and you pick it up in your feet

elephants do that rhinos do that hippos

do that crocodiles do that and

alligators do it they produce infrasound

but for a Paris aramis these calls can

be used for more than just communication

low-frequency infrasound can put up an

aggressive form of defense

infrasound is a weapon you can scramble

the brains of your enemy with a blast of

infrasound if you have a hundred duck

bills thousand duck bills facing the

same direction producing high decibel

sounds that's a wave of energy that

could knock over a predator or at least

discombobulated it scramble its brains

despite packing a deafening secret

weapon' embarrass Aramis like other

plant eaters knows that the best way to

stay alive is to keep predators at a

distance but in this prehistoric world

giant carnivores with ultra keen senses

and powerful razors

throughout the Cretaceous hungry

carnivores patrol the list

they are the most terrifying as the

world has ever known

they're plant-eating prey though

well-armed and well armored they don't

give in without a fight but prehistoric

herbivores have a problem they lack the

brain power of the carnivores that hunt

them

soare Poseidon's brain is so tiny it can

barely process any information at all so

just how did these intellectually

challenged Giants cope in such a

dangerous world

there has to be some sort of device that

compensated for this diminished capacity

to make individual choice

it's got to be society sauroposeidon

defend themselves against super

predators by working and thinking

together

so you have Group Intelligence Group

memory group decision-making replacing

individuality

living as a group is vital for

sauroposeidon survival individually

their huge size is a powerful defense

but sticking together makes these

leviathans close to indestructible

keeping a herd of 50-ton animals filled

up however means traveling vast

distances grazing a territory covering

thousands of square miles and moving a

mountain of flesh requires sophisticated

and coordination one of the curious

things about sauropods is that they did

have a swelling in the spinal cord in

the neighborhood of their pelvis this

was sort of like a second brain to help

control the back half of the body

it's called the sacral lumbar extension

a bundle of nerves which acts like a

primitive brain controlling the

movements of the lakes and tail the

brain in Essaouira Poseidon's head is

simply too small and far away to

coordinate its front and back legs so

like a prehistoric firetruck a second

brain operates the back end at the end

the reasons why animals like

sauroposeidon have an enlargement in

their hip is because there's actually a

lot going on back there there are lots

of muscles that are in the legs and also

muscles that are going through the tail

the primitive brain in its pelvis keeps

Sora Poseidon's legs and tail and sync

with its body

without it they could never have grazed

over such large territories possible

they wouldn't have even been able to

walk it all this tiny bundle of nerves

Wayne just a few ounces allows herds of

sauroposeidon to rule the great plains

of the southern Midwest for almost 15

million years

another plant either couldn't appear

more different

it's small weak and highly intelligent

but like sauroposeidon era psaropoulos

live in herds

they stick together they're constantly

on the lookout for threats

but for Parasurama wish there's a

problem

their eyes are on the side of their head

so fields of view don't overlap this

leaves a blind spot and dead ahead a

possible opening for an attacker they

couldn't see directly behind themselves

and the action would have problems

seemed directly in front of themselves

it's almost a different visual world

than one that we can imagine the Paris

Iraqis have this problem covered

you've got multiple Parasaurolophus

living together that means multiple eyes

to scan the horizon and if one of you is

feeding munching on the plants on the

ground the other can keep its eyes out

looking around keeping an eye out for a

Tyrannosaurus

but not all plant eaters in the

Cretaceous live as a group and Kaila

Saurus are loners

they depend on a powerful tail club and

steel like body armor to defend

themselves

without the hurt to watch your back and

Kaila Soros has to watch its own

that's a job made even harder as its

worst enemy a t-rex can hunt under the

cover of darkness

fortunately and in Kyla surah says

another effective weapon in its armoury

a highly refined sense of smell

the nasal region of and Kyla Soros and

it skin is one of the most specialized

parts of its anatomy for an ankylosaurus

a t-rex is distinctive odor is a dead

giveaway the sense of smell was more

important potentially than the sense of

vision and Kaila sources nasal passages

wind through the skull significantly

increasing their surfaces

this enlarged space is populated by

millions of odor receptors complicated

crazy straw tortuous nasal passageway

that went from the nostril made several

loops through the snout before it went

down into the throat

ankylosaurus is super sensitive nose can

pick up a carnivore over two miles wide

if it could smell a Tyrannosaurus coming

it's got an early warning and so it can

begin to react appropriately for a

hungry t-rex it means a meal has simply

vanished into thin air

never underestimate a vegetarian

Parasurama since Orem beside rely on the

numbers to spot predators before they

attack

ankylosaurus has an armory of senses to

keep carnivores at their

but no matter how clever and herbivore

may be no matter how many tools they

have at the ready

sometimes they're no

for herbivores keeping one step ahead of

the competition is a never-ending

struggle t-rex

was designed by natural selection to

overcome those formidable defenses

under the cover of darkness a

Tyrannosaurus Rex is on the hunt

it's or

Triceratops six tons of muscle loaded

with deadly defensive weapons

all mounted on the armored skull that

can turn on

but Triceratops as one major

disadvantage its night vision is no

match for a Tyrannosaur

t-rex goes for the camera

taking on a healthy adult Triceratops it

means facing long odds that is if a

t-rex is acting alone probably the only

way a t-rex could successfully and

safely bring down Triceratops is by

having him at least one other individual

Taranis or that would ambush it from the

back while the one in front is keeping

the attention of the Triceratops working

as a team the ultimate carnival delivers

a guilty

for the t-rex it's a veritable feast

this battle plays out over and over

again sparking evolutionary changes in

carnivores then in turn plant eaters up

the ante you can look at it as sort of

almost an arms race between the

herbivores and the carnivores and

herbivores to protect themselves the

carnivores changed in order to attack

and be able to have enough power to kill

the herbivores

the arms race between predator and prey

continues for millions of years

develop some of the most effective

killing to suniverse history

prehistoric twenties evolved offenses

simply unmatched today

Paris our office with a call so it's a

dangerous weapon sauroposeidon bigger

than any land creature will ever see

ankylosaurus with a club for a tail and

armor built like a bulletproof vest

and Triceratops the big bruiser with a

skull struck to stop the jaws of a t-rex

all these cretaceous plant eaters with

their complicated apparatus they're all

much more sophisticated so we're

beginning to understand that we wooly

underestimated the inner and outer life

of the veggie saw

from the Triassic period to the

Cretaceous more than 165 million years

even today the battle between herbivores

and carnivores rages on

but it's this brutal war for survival

temptation that

credibly natural