Mothlite is Daniel O’Sullivan (born 1 December 1980), a multi-instrumenta… Read Full Bio ↴Mothlite is Daniel O’Sullivan (born 1 December 1980), a multi-instrumentalist/composer from Manchester. He is best known for playing in experimental art-rock bands such as Grumbling Fur, Æthenor, Miasma & The Carousel Of Headless Horses, Miracle, Guapo and Ulver. Mothlite is his solo project, although he is assisted by a loose collective of musicians.

Mothlite's second album ‘Dark Age’ is the 2012 follow-up to 2008’s ‘The Flax Of Reverie’ (Southern Records). Having spent a lot of time recently working as a collaborator in his many other projects, O’Sullivan felt it was time to return to Mothlite to work on something unequivocally personal:

“All the other things are collaborations and there’s a communal interest, but with Mothlite the content is quite personal and to do with me. It’s quite easy to neglect, particularly when you’re in a bit of a shit storm as I was the past couple of years.”

"This is prevalent in the lyrical content, which denotes a catharsis throughout a period of hysteria and emotional turmoil". He describes ‘Dark Age’ as “Dark megalomania, contradictions and paradoxes, and general bleakness”, yet rarely does such subject matter get delivered with the soaring pop aplomb as on the album’s twelve tracks, flitting from sparkle and rumble of ‘The Blood’ to the epic washes of ‘The Underneath’ and beyond.

Dark Age has allowed O’Sullivan to break free from the confines of genre, taking influence from the likes of Tears For Fears and Kate Bush from his parents’ record collection through the industrial and gothic textures of D.A.F., The Cure, Coil and Dead Can Dance to the hardcore punk of his own personal roots. Indeed, O’Sullivan’s use of contradiction within the style of the record is a very deliberate choice: “If it was too bleak, with melancholy overriding the whole thing, then I’d counteract it with a huge chorus or huge hook” O'Sullivan's chief collaborator in Mothlite is Norwegian producer Knut Jonas Sellevold (Elektrofant, King Knut). Arranger, composer and beat-maker of the highest order.

Now Dark Age is done, O’Sullivan is ready to move onto new things. “To be honest, I’m really glad that it’s over,” he says. “I felt like I couldn’t move until I got that out there.” As well as plans for a new Mothlite record, this forward surge includes exploring “ideas and schemes” as to how ‘Dark Age’ will transfer to the road. “Now that the drama has played out and everyone can see what it is, I can almost do a theatrical version of the scenes within. I don’t want to look as though I’m crying down the microphone night after night if we go on tour. I’d rather have a show.”

Mother Spider
Mothlite Lyrics

We have lyrics for these tracks by Mothlite:

Cauldron And in becoming My sleepless state Betrothed For eyes u…
Dark Age How can we be bigger than the life we chose…
Disappear All flew away All today I’m watching you disappear Into…
Dreamsinter Nightspore Inheritance of trouble In the blood Or in the water Like …
Hypnogogue Stranger visiting Doors opening Rooms emerging Light flas…
Milk Two hearts Beating Inside The sickness of suicide And t…
Neverbegoodwood Fathoming the gulf between us Whose brambled banks bleed us…
Red Rook Silver wind is blowing Water turns to glass The giant’s gr…
Riverside In the shadow of the riverside…

Seeing in the Dark I want to turn off I don’t want to say the…
Something in the Sky The murdering words Words like forever Violent and tender …
The Blood You can change the way it happened The truth was made…
The Underneath Woke from a dream That left me Open and sore Until my min…
The Untouched Dew So now beyond? celestial So Love Celestial So now? be…
Wounded Lions The house A Home Family Frailty Young and old The gho…

Zebras Time warps blame See you standing there before me drenched…

The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos

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PT4M50S

03The Tree With Red Fruit3:12

04Hintergedanke7:47

05Seeing In The Dark (Grumbling Fur Entity Reunion Mix)3:35

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Most interesting comment from YouTube:

@PygmalionFaciebat

1y↑6

I am sceptic about one of your explainations , that the birds lost their teeth because of weight. Because what you forgot to mention in your video: birds (as well as classic plant eating dinosaurs itself), needed to eat stones instead, so that the stones helped to digest the plants. Birds even today usually do that. Stones have a density of around 2,7-3 grams/cm³ .. .much higher than teeth. Losing the teeth and forced to replace it with stones in the stomach actually increases the weight of the birds, and not decreases it.
I also sceptic about your second explaination : ''growing teeth needs more time in the egg to grow'' . A lot of animals today which are born out of eggs are actually born with teeth , like Lizards and Crocodiles. So i am sure the same option birds had back than, as the Lizards and Crocodiles today.
Now, when we sort out these two explainations - whats left. Not a lot, but i have a theory - and its about physics.
The weight of the mouth and head actually have another effect: the angular momentum. While non-flying predators only are acting in 2 dimensions, birds are moving in a 3-dimensional space in the air - means: thats a higher degree of freedom - and therefore: higher chance to miss the prey, than in 2 dimensions. Meaning: you need every piece of movement-advantage you have, to make that one hit in one split second. This not only needs very good eyes (like owls, eagles, etc) have. It also needs the most short beak as possible (remember: angular momentum of the head), and the most weightless beak as possible (the less weight, the smaller the angular momentum... the easier to move the head ... the faster headmovements can be). Tyrannosaurus rex had a big head, with a lot of weight, and therefore his head as sure didnt moved that fast, like an eagles head. But Tyrannosaurus rex didnt needed a fast head. It was enough when his body was fast enough for the big prey, and because he acted in two dimensions (walking on the ground), there was less degree of freedom for his kind prey to get away.
A predator bird needs every movement advantage possible with his mean weapon: his mouth, as possible.

And tooth add to the weight of his mouth...also the bones which need to support the teeth. A beak (because made of creatin) would be to soft to last a lifespan with tooth in it.
Sure the headmovement with bigger head-weight could be compensated with stronger bigger neck-muscles. But birds already have that, and still take more advantage of a lightweight beak, for faster headmovements, because less angular momentum.

So thats my explaination... It also could be wrong. But at least it seems as plausible for me, as the other theories you mentioned.

All comments from YouTube:

@deathsyth8888

2y↑112

Bird dentists also went extinct after birds lost their teeth.

@pavel9652

2y↑10

Beakycure services were booming ;)

@ohlookitswireddude8105

35w↑3

Dude I haven’t laughed for a week now
And now its been 8 days.

@cliftonfurney5083

34w↑2

Them same bird dentists had stock in the bird candy business. They did ok for themselves

@luminousfractal420

33w↑1

Maybe that was it, bird dentists went private so they had to learn to live without teeth.

@PeppermintPissy

That's true

1 More Replies...

@seanmckelvey6618

2y↑514

I like the point made at the end of the video that really, the fact that we're surrounded only by beaked birds today might simply be the result of their ancestors being the ones lucky enough to make it through the KPG event rather than a specific evolutionary advantage for losing their teeth.

@astick5249

2y↑75

@@Me-yq1fl But its not enough to have a rapid out competition event. Toothed individuals who have a good hold on a niche will likely prevent non toothed individuals from evolving traits that can get them close to taking their niche. So they probably niche partitioned instead.

@kait3n10

2y↑59

I was thinking, perhaps it wasn't just luck that helped beaked birds survive the KPG event. Since beaked birds develop faster in their eggs, it could lead to faster reproduction (since teeth take longer to develop) helping their survival. In other words, that could have been a specific advantage during the extinction event over birds with teeth. I felt that period was kind of glossed over in the video.

@astick5249

2y↑12

@@kait3n10 i think that one was touched on yea, but ultimately its a very minor difference. (however that difference could very well mean life or death in an extinction event)

@quitlife9279

2y↑7

@@astick5249 there are no such thing as "minor difference", any adaptive advantage is significant over evolutionary timespan of millions of years and gazillion generations, many cases much faster, even without any mass extinction events. If toothed birds were indeed more competent at any niche thus more abundant to begin with they would have survived.

@astick5249

2y↑14

@@quitlife9279 But when an animal already has a tight grip on a niche they are from the get go in a more advantageous position for that niche than another animal that isn,t specialized for that niche. Even if that other animal has a trait that would make it more competitively viable than the other theres still just the fact that sometimes a niche can be "taken" and it prevents others from adapting to it.

22 More Replies...

@bioast

2y↑1.7K

I always was surprised by seeing the sawlike shape of goose's beak, those are not real teeth unfortunately. Another example of convergence evolution bringing back teeth but in an other form

@bkjeong4302

2y↑154

The papillae and barbed tongues of various predatory birds and vultures also qualify: there is some support for terror birds also being like this, as the larger terror birds had enlarged palates (that support these papillae in living birds).

@ecurewitz

2y↑66

And then there are the insides of penguin beaks.

@maritasue5067

2y↑111

“Unfortunately”? If you had ever been bitten by a goose, you would be so very thankful that the real teeth are no more.
I could tell horror stories about Floyd-the-Gander and his incredible ability to bite and hold on. 😳

@heilmadon

2y↑13

@@ecurewitz Yeah but the penguins mouth is just to prevent fish from coming back up.

@logenvestfold4143

2y↑56

@@maritasue5067 geese are the most terrifying dinosaurs alive today

59 More Replies...

@99bulldog

2y↑555

I have to say I watch a lot of paleontology channels but yours has to be one of the best. Not only is your voice pleasant to listen to, but you obviously take plenty of time for research and editing, well done.

@jashak9291

2y↑31

Also its really calm and professional. Many channels like to show flashy colours with weird sound effects and wild hand gestures which can get distracting, whereas his videos are just soothing. I love that

@WanderTheNomad

@@jashak9291 Are there really that many paleontology channels on YouTube?

@koop8711

2y↑2

Unintentional ASMR

@kierank2505

2y↑3

🌟 Wander the Nomad There are so many!

@Alyeska907

2y↑3

Agreed. I also appreciate that he doesn't drag his channel through the mud by getting political.

5 More Replies...

@daniell1483

2y↑61

"Why birds have beaks" is really the biggest question I have when comparing birds to their non-avian counterparts. Thanks for this answer!

@judeperks6612

49w

@@hugh.g.rection5906 lmao

@Xnaut314

2y↑483

I've long proposed that an original driving force for the evolution of beaks and toothlessness in birds was a dietary shift towards herbivorous diets. Because dinosaurs did not have heterodont teeth like mammals do a fairly common adaptation seen in several herbivorous dinosaur taxa was to remove dentition from the front of the mouth and replace that with a keratinous beak.

The ancestors of birds were obligate carnivores, so the first birds had sharp conical teeth as well. But any groups that started adapting to omnivory would have struggled to grab the hard, slick surfaces of seeds with a predatory mouth, so the easiest solution for a flying dinosaur would have been to remove the front teeth and evolve a keratinous beak in their place to make seed foraging easier, but retain sharp teeth in the back for any animal prey they caught. The first fully toothless birds were then likely obligate herbivores that subsisted entirely on plant material and removed all teeth in favor of a bill to optimize this dietary shift.

When the K-PG Extinction happened the dynamics of the global food web changed drastically, and it's possible the only birds to successfully survive into the Cenozoic were herbivorous toothless clades. The diversity of prey species was drastically reduced for predators, and mammals were likely better at sniffing out the hiding locations of surviving insects and other tiny animals. Therefore, the more sight-oriented birds were better off foraging for plants to stay alive during the cataclysm, which would have given toothless beaked birds a significant advantage over the toothed birds that ultimately went extinct. Afterwards, all carnivorous birds of the Cenozoic were descendants of toothless ancestors and had to adapt their beaks and/or feet to become more efficient at killing prey to compensate, which we see in predatory birds of the present.

@wiwaxiasilver827

2y↑59

Wow, interesting hypothesis.

@Hotrob_J

2y↑23

That makes a lot of sense

@mylesbartunek5920

2y↑49

You know I really like this hypothesis. I could truly see this being a huge driving factor in the beaked birds we see today.

@gvasilyev84

2y↑8

It was winter for several years after the asteroid hit so there were no plants to eat

@stephenlitten1789

2y↑29

Insects give a better calorific return than plants. And chitin can form very tough coatings. Beaks can give an advantage hunting insects.
Just saying

27 More Replies...

@norarivkis2513

2y↑101

It's even more complicated because there were some non-avian dinosaurs who had beaks themselves, whether or not they also had teeth (which some seem to have done and some didn't). So there were birds without beaks and there were also beaks without birds.

@lordhawkridge4116

2y↑26

Octopuses today have beaks too

@pavel9652

2y↑5

@@lordhawkridge4116 Insane, I haven't seen it before! There is good photographic evidence on google.

@NitroIndigo

1y↑11

@@lordhawkridge4116 So do turtles.

@bahamutkaiser

1y↑2

And Reptiles can have beaks too

@norarivkis2513

1y↑5

@@bahamutkaiser Yup! Turtles are reptiles, and it was just pointed out that they usually do.

3 More Replies...

@shanevandiver8457

2y↑499

I love that birds ARE dinosaurs. Not descended from dinosaurs, but legitimate therapod dinosaurs.
Yes, they have shed their tails and teeth and developed beaks, but dinosaurs nonetheless.
To an 80s kid that's rad AF

@pavel9652

2y↑24

I got it wrong a couple of times, as I refereed to birds as descended from dinosaurs, dang it! ;)

@ratreptile

2y↑89

Technically though they are not mutually exclusive statements, they kindof have to have descended from dinosaurs in order to be dinosaurs.

@TransoceanicOutreach

'but legitimate therapod dinosaurs' - no, they are not. They are what we call 'birds'. Birds are classed as reptiles, but no normal person accepts that either.

@tacitozetticci9308

1y↑4

@@ratreptile okay but that does not apply to the first dinosaur ever lol

@misanthropicservitorofmars2116

1y↑62

It’s creepy, and it’s creepy knowing that dinosaurs were likely as behaviorally similar to birds. You know if a bird was big enough it would do horrific things to a human.

60 More Replies...

@leo_the_v.3847

2y↑56

"The evolution of Ichthyosaurs" would be an interesting video. We always hear how Whales adapted to the sea, but i wanna know more how the reptile ancestors of the Ichthysaur did.

@pattonramming1988

That would be very fascinating marine reptiles gave rise to a multi tiered food web that included large prey

@sunnyb1185

1y↑2

There are some very interesting articles on this subject in science magazine and a few other publifications, if you're interested in that type of thing. I did a presentation analyzing the reasons why ichthyosaurs evolved significantly faster than whales and researching for it was very interesting.

@SoulDelSol

Great idea

@chheinrich8486

1y↑1

Especially bow that we knwo they went for tiny to 18 Metern Höhe just million years

@00crashtest

2y↑67

All current turtles (taxonomic (more specifically, phylogenetic) family; who also happen to be reptiles) also have beaks instead of teeth. It looks like losing teeth and replacing them with beaks are a current theme in reptiles.

@JanetStarChild

2y↑19

But, among current reptiles, beaks are only seen on turtles; and turtles are very distantly separated from all other reptiles, possibly being the only living anapsid lineage today.

@tuxuhds6955

2y↑4

Also, it helps them fly!

@justflex6745

2y↑2

@@JanetStarChild birds are reptiles.Also
im pretty sure turtles arent too far removed from the dinosaur lineage

@themockingdragon135

2y↑5

@@JanetStarChild I think based on genetic analysis most phyogenists have concluded that turtles are most closely related to crcocodiles and birds, and maybe other archosaurs in general. Of course until we get a particularly clear fossil record we may never know what they actually evolved from.

@DieFlabbergast

Er ... birds are no more "reptiles" than we mammals are, even though both groups are descended from the Reptilia.

4 More Replies...

@PastEons

2y↑76

Clear, concise and beautifully illustrated, one of the best channels here, awesome work!

@picksalot1

2y↑183

"Much like our fingernails, a bird's beak is made of keratin and grows continuously throughout its life. Because of this, the beak must be constantly ground down—either via the bird's everyday activities or a manual beak trim—for it to stay healthy and function properly."

I think that a beak may be more versatile and robust as a tool in a lifestyle where it is constantly being used. Pecking is likely to damage or dislodge teeth, and consequently interfere with eating. Nuts and hard seeds would not be on the diet. When a toothed animal looses it's teeth, starvation is not far away.

@melissagrant1649

2y↑34

That starvation issue would really only affect most extant toothed mammal species, including us. Most toothed animals, including a few mammals, constantly shed and replace their teeth, i.e. polyphyodonts. In fairness to you, I've watched presentations by paleontologists who, from time to time, still fall back on some kind of Homo sapiens or even mammal bias when talking about other animals.

@heilmadon

2y↑22

@@melissagrant1649 Or be like the rodents who teeth also never stop growing. Beaks have upsides to lead to it but also have their negatives teethed animals managed to eat a lot more plants than beaked Im still teuing to think of a beaked animal that eats leaves or grass.

@Faesharlyn

2y↑7

gestures toward the shark and alligator

@picksalot1

2y↑6

@@Faesharlyn Big difference in size, biting, and feeding strategies.

@Faesharlyn

2y↑3

@@picksalot1 but they both replace their teeth throughout their lives, literally backup teeth for their backup teeth.

15 More Replies...

@charlesjmouse

2y↑20

"Thea earliest bird known to have existed is difficult to pin down."
Ah, is that because it could fly or because it was busy catching the worm?

Excellent video by the way.

@_robustus_

2y↑71

Beaks are a cheaper way of masticating food. Taking the trouble of growing and maintaining flesh and bone oral apparatus is significantly more expensive calorically. Beaks evolved in lots of non-avian creatures as distantly related as mollusks are to birds.

@magichands135

2y↑10

I don't really like the easier and cheap explanation, after all where is your beak? I doubt evolution cares about easy and cheap, it cares about the most fitting solution I think. Maybe these birds just had smaller pray that didn't require a lot of chewing, if any.

@heilmadon

2y↑19

@@magichands135 Birds dont chew, with their beaks they filter, tear crush but not chew it makes much more sense birds evolved beaks for lightweight flight and egg development. pterasaurs had them and bats may develop them in the future.

@Faesharlyn

2y↑13

The "masticating" happens in the crop, where they swallow small stones that do the grinding. The beak is for rooting around, finding and tearing the food, not chewing.

@krankarvolund7771

2y↑15

Masticating is an almost exclusively mammal trait, some other species do it, but most species can't chew, and certainly not the ones with beaks ^^
Masticating requires teeth to grind, you can't chew with a toothless beak. Most birds swallow their food whole, or tear pieces that they gobble.

@_robustus_

2y↑1

Correct, masticate is the wrong word. Consider however the various diets of birds. None of them require the extra bone, muscle and teeth that a beak and gastroliths replace. Doing away with them increases efficiency and that is often the edge one needs to out compete somebody else vying for your niche. Beaks don’t replace teeth in every situation. That’s why we don’t have them (although our dicynodont ancestors did).

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@jaybee946

2y↑34

Feels like your quality is always ticking upward! Great video. Always enjoy them.

@Glerbicus

2y↑7

Birds aren't the only group of animals entirely beaked..., their very close relatives the turtles are all beaked as well. And they definitely didn't evolve beaks to shed weight haha

@wollin20

2y↑153

It's incredible how we can actually know about those ancient times, like the fact that all living birds (around 10 000 species) descend from 3 or a little bit more species of feathered flying dinosaurs whith a beak (so, basically, they were already birds) which survive the mass extinction 66/67 millions years ago. Science is amazing !

@vincentadultman6226

2y↑31

Honestly this and crocodiles make me giddy, it's amazing to think we're seeing crocodiles just as the dinosaurs and others have seen them

Birds are soooo cool, those few species of dinosaurs have filled so many niches its crazy

@Funkiotologist

2y↑14

@@vincentadultman6226 recently at my job I’ve been just observing birds as they go about their life, it’s so amazing to casually walk by a dinosaur 😂

@vincentadultman6226

2y↑14

@@Funkiotologist yeah, it's easy to take it for granted, but when you stop for a minute you can really take in the fact you're seeing the grandchildren of Archaeopteryx

@wajihbec1087

2y↑5

do we really KNOW tho? aren't they just pretty good guesses? not that that's not impressive.

@krankarvolund7771

2y↑18

It's not three species, it's four orders. An order can contain multiple species ^^
It's more like there was a thousand species of birds, and only a hundred survived the extinction (those numbers are not accurate, we don't have all fossils at all).

And it's the same for mammals by the way, we always say that the extinction benefited to mammals but there was a dozen or more orders of mammals before the crisis and four only survived. One of them died after the extinction, and even today, there's one big order, the placentals (us), and the two others are just a handful of survivors (the marsupials and the monothremes).

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@ButterBallTheOpossum

2y↑12

This was such an interesting video. Don't stop uploading

@mattmorehouse9685

2y↑21

Mothlight, I love how you describe the process of figuring out what is a bird. It sounds so simple; is it descended from a dinosaur and flies? But then scientists have to get into the nitty gritty, with a group of supposed non bird dinosaurs that could've evolved from flying ancestors and multiple times flight evolved. No wonder scientists said "You know what? If it comes from a certain group it counts as a member. Hence, dinosaurs are amphibians and humans are fish."
And then the beak, another hallmark of modern birds evolves multiple times, with the first beaked bird being much more distantly related to modern birds that a bird with a mouth full of teeth.
Interesting that beaks take a whole lot less time to grow than teeth, though I suppose it makes sense. After all keratin structures such as hair and fingernail grow throughout life, while teeth, at least in mammals, don't. Though I suppose that could change with animals such as sharks with replaceable teeth... might be a good idea for an episode.
Thanks for the video.

@nothingnobody1454

2y↑2

Rodents have teeth that grow forever

@mattmorehouse9685

2y↑1

@@nothingnobody1454 Right you are.

@nothingnobody1454

@@mattmorehouse9685 uh... I meant to say, yeah rodents are odd

@mattmorehouse9685

2y↑1

@@nothingnobody1454 I get that. I said you are right.

@stevenshea990

2y↑12

Charlie: I mean, did you discover a bird with teeth in this fashion?

Dennis: No, that does not exist in nature

Charlie: Ok, I'm not sure about that

@adriang1137

2y↑344

Babe wake up! New Moth Light Media upload!

@TomoyoTatar

2y↑5

Is this is the new first?

@melgrenier3117

2y↑2

lol for real

@zeropsaft

2y↑3

I came

@solssun

2y↑4

original

@willisverynice

2y↑5

Now that’s a funny original joke

11 More Replies...

@AntoekneeDetaecho

2y↑19

Thank you for this, I was completely unaware of the gestational duration effects caused by dental maturation but it certainly makes sense that being able to quickly replenish numbers and relieving parents of incubation post K-Pg would be useful even if the lack of teeth would probably put some cenozoic birds in some environments at a disadvantage against their earlier equivalents (imagine a terror bird like Titanus with a mouth full of steak knives!)

@heilmadon

I mean instead of a bunch of small blades the current theoey is it was just micheal mayers with a knife and just rammed its beak into smaller prey

@colinmaclaughlanweir9670

2y↑24

Gotta love even after all this time Archeopterix is still the oldest bird. It stands right on the line. As a kid they would draw it as a rust brown in all the books but a black and white bird is just as cool. The bottle neck the left us with just a few lines of birds and nothing else from the Dino family is just so cruel.

@stormisuedonym4599

2y↑8

I look at it this way: Even if they had survived, most - if not all - would not have made it through the beginning of the Anthropocene. We were not kind to the megafauna we found as we expanded out of Africa.

@Lumosnight

1y↑3

In my book the archeopterix was drawn as colourful - yellow with dabs of green, red and blue

@icycrusader1947

2y↑49

I was kinda wondering what bird beaks were made up of, not enough to look it up necessarily. I always thought it was derived form of bone like teeth rather than keratin which makes up horns, nails, hair, and skin among other structures. Now I'm wondering if other beaked animals have keratin beaks as well or if they're different because of seperate evolutionary pressures from birds.

@heilmadon

2y↑8

The pterosaurs probably had keratin sheaths coving there beak as well as some of the dinos Ive even seen one dino theory where ceratopcians had a keratin sheath on its frill.

@catjuulcultmember1631

2y↑7

I just looked it up, and octopus and squid beaks are made of chitin, the same material crustaceans use for their shells! So yes, depending on different factors beaks would likely be made of different materials :0

@heilmadon

2y↑1

@@catjuulcultmember1631 That makes sense considering they are from the shellfish line but considering birds and reptiles have keratin and mammals would probably have them too if evolution ever pressured them into it.

@WhyYouAllHabut

2y↑4

I always look forward to your videos. Very calming and educational! Thank you 🙌

@johnshields6852

2y↑7

The similarities to prehistoric dinosaurs is amazing, even the big predator dinosaurs had much in common, the legs being the obvious similarity, it's an evolutionary trait that's stood the test of time.

@rickkwitkoski1976

Wow! I've been subbed to you for a few years now. I love your presentation. Your research is superb. You have improved so much. Thank you.

@veryunusual126

2y↑1

I just love your videos,
you always choose topics that are totally interesting to me👍👍👍👍👍

@Katze822228

2y↑5

so many interesting thoughts, i love it!
Especially the thought that if teethed birds did not go extinct at the K-T boundary, teethed birds might have outcompeted birds with beaks or other animals in some niches

@RDSyafriyar

2y↑5

"In our day there are no longer any ideas, or they are scarcer than hens' teeth." - Louis Aragon

@websdaspider8811

Your voice is very calming, and I love the content you are covering. Im subscribing.

@lsporter88

2y↑2

Fabulous research. Superb presentation.

@tecramos

2y↑5

Geese have some form teeth inside their beak and on their tongues as well.

@anitacoogan4822

2y↑9

Thanks I'm always learning - enjoy.. Heard Canadian Geese have a row of hard ridges like teeth. A friend & I rescue songbirds when they migrate thru the city, they hit the glass skyscrapers or fall to the cement, most do not survive. A recent youtube video shows us in Newark NJ, the video is named( Volunteers give migrating birds injured in N.J’s biggest city a second chance ) The Raptor Trust(TRT) made video named ( Window Strikes in the Business District ) of us picking up injured Warblers. BTW last year TRT had to operate on a Heron to removed 2 of its 4 wings so it could fly better and released back to wild, I read about it in their 2021 annual report.

@feuerling

2y↑1

@chu Harry It had a pair of underdeveloped wings under its right wing, possibly from an absorbed twin.

@hannahbrown2728

2y↑2

Broke: MLM, Multi Level Marketing

Woke: MLM, Men Loving Men

Galaxy Brain: MLM, Moth Light Media

Thanks for another great video

@travisbicklejr

2y↑5

Outstanding video! More bird-focused content would be greatly appreciated!

@Funkiotologist

2y↑5

it’s incredible to think what non avian Archosauria were truly like. They’re almost like made up creatures from another planet. Enormous beasts that evolved into all walks of life: flying reptiles as big as busses, feathered giants that had dominion over continents, armored titans that were built as tanks, and some of the largest animals that we know to exist literally ruling the earth for millennium, i just love it too much man it’s impeccably beautiful

@XxTheGreatDestroyerx

I get unreasonably excited when I see a new Moth Light Media upload

@viikoreaux

1y↑1

Super stoked to have found this video as this particular topic is of very great interest to me, and information is kinda hard to find if you don’t know what you’re looking for. I’m very interested in seeing more videos on beaks vs teeth and how a beak is actually constructed and what benefits or detriments they each have.

@stefan_popp

2y↑3

It would be awesome if you could put markers w/ images on your timeline. I struggle keeping track of when what occurred and how to place times into context. Here, e.g. when which lineage diverged, beaks have been gained, teeth lost, etc.
I'd also LOVE a 'review' video where you talk about one time period and sum up in which stages the ancestors of modern lineages were. What did the world look like back then? E.g. which marine reptiles were alive when birds lost their teeth?

@matje2498

2y↑3

Never thought about why birds don't have teeth. Great video!

@donnyjay9046

52w

I am in awe of this channel. Stumbled upon from the algorithm, and I'm hooked.

@anyascelticcreations

2y↑1

I really like these videos. Thank you for sharing. 👍

@domib.3924

2y↑3

This guy's voice is so calming, perfect for explaining evolution, especially being British.

@sprague49

2y↑7

I've often wondered how feathered dinosaurs, toothed birds included, preened, oiled and groomed their feathers. It would seem that teeth could wreak havoc on delicate plumage.

@advaithpillai

2y↑6

maybe the habit of preening developed post the KPG extinction event. The other feathered dinosaurs probably had other mechanisms to clean and adjust their feathers. Can't come up with an example though...

@quitlife9279

ooh that is a very good point! Lips...?

@SuperMrHiggins

30w

Really, really enjoyed the video. Thank you so much.

@thecaveofthedead

Thanks. I've been wondering about this for a long time.

@kearsargeyt8848

2y↑15

I want to know the origin of pangolin!

@HaydenTheEeeeeeeeevilEukaryote

2y↑1

i would love to see that too

@beneficent2557

2y↑1

Its scales are keratinized hairs, and they may go back to the cretaceous.

@shattafari

2y↑3

I love your channel and have my post notifications turned on... and as a fan, I want to give you a tip. When you say words like "archaeopteryx" I would love for you to put the spelling in the video so viewers can research it.

@StepBaum

Easy to follow, great visuals, love your vids :)

@aniksamiurrahman6365

Wow! I felt like lost in your story. You are a great story teller.

@jamesbentonticer4706

2y↑5

This is such an interesting topic.

@Hfil66

2y↑5

I would have thought another factor that differentiates birds from most (if not all) other egg laying species is that they lay eggs with hard shells. It might be that beaks could easier break through hard shells than teeth, on the other hand that would not prevent the bird growing teeth after they broke out of the egg.

@kyoku1982

2y↑1

As I recall some reptiles have a special tooth made for breaking through their shell. They lose it shortly after hatching.

@Moses_VII

Uh, egg tooth? Birds have those.

@kuitaranheatmorus9932

I really love these videos and just really hope to see more

Also hope y'all have amazing summer

@infomercialwars

you're doing good work, keep it up!

@PygmalionFaciebat

1y↑6

@catsdogswoof3968

1y↑1

Oh yea my point was gonna be that birds have stronger bodies than head but it seems you covered that. But just because there are toothed reptiles that lay eggs doesn't mean that disproves the teeth thing. As I think those ones gaurd the nest so that the eggs survive to make teeth.

@sneeringimperialist6667

2y↑4

They lost the teeth around the time that fruit was evolving. Maybe the acid and sugar caused tooth decay, and infected teeth caused a high death rate...

@advaithpillai

what about predatory birds in that case? they should still have kept their teeth, would've been more useful to tear flesh

@sneeringimperialist6667

2y↑2

@@advaithpillai the ancestor birds may have been omnivorous or only ate fruit. They could have changed , later. It would be nice to see a study of stomach contents from that period.

@chasduff8186

2y↑1

Much more enticing thumbnail, love your stuff

@mrwaxwave

2y↑1

You have a future in nature documentaries I think, such a great voice

@mungobaggins8197

2y↑6

It seems to me that losing weight by losing teeth would be offset by the need to have a gizzard and stones. Maybe not overall, but I would think the initial evolution would be difficult.

@quitlife9279

Good point, but i don't believe all birds swallow stones, it is then possible that the ancestral bird didn't eat seeds or rough material that needed gizzard stones, or perhaps toothed birds also swallowed stones for digestion, since having teeth doesn't mean they can chew, so the teeth was even more weight...

@MrFossil367ab45gfyth

2y↑3

Wow I never knew this! I never would've thought that the beak was important to flying.
Also the idea that raptors weren't dinosaurs but were big flightless birds is cool. What a change that would be!
Thank you for sharing, you have taught me so much!

@isaacbruner65

2y↑1

Dromeosaur "raptors" were most definitely dinosaurs, but birds are also dinosaurs. Generally the loosest scientific usage of the word bird refers to avialans (a group consisting mostly of modern birds and archaic toothed birds), but not the other maniraptorans (like the dromeosaurs) even though a few of them may have been capable of flight as well.

@MrFossil367ab45gfyth

@@isaacbruner65 , oh ok. I know that birds are dinosaurs. But the thing that confuses me is that if birds are dinosaurs, then not all dinosaurs were reptiles then.

@dibershai6009

1y↑1

@@MrFossil367ab45gfyth All dinosaurs are reptiles. Even birds.

@swian9440

1y↑1

@@MrFossil367ab45gfyth they are still reptiles, all birds are reptiles too

@catsdogswoof3968

@@swian9440 they have warm blood they are so powerful they escaped a group in resent times like that all reptiles need shade and have cold blood and so suaropsids with warm blood are not reptiles

1 More Replies...

@liddonburns8195

so so interesting! thank you! i love watching your videos!

@bash3997

nice one, always was wondering about this topic

@rursus8354

2y↑5

Some scientists speculate that the beak was the means of survival during the Impact winter of 66 Mya, by being usable for eating seed.

@AnubisTheMaster

2y↑2

Order 66 of birbs 👀

@lightningboltt5437

2y↑4

my theory is that the birds who survived the kpg extinction ( they were all ground living and didnt live in trees) had beaks and no teeth as they fed on bugs and plants that dont require teeth but when birds started to rediversify in the cenozoic, they had permanently lost the ability to grow teeth so they adapted to new diets and environments by evolving features that allowed them to make better use of their beaks

@catsdogswoof3968

Wait so why do toothed birds exist tho

@catsdogswoof3968

In the modern day sorry

@lightningboltt5437

@@catsdogswoof3968 they dont, "teeth" in todays birds is an extension of the beak

@catsdogswoof3968

@@lightningboltt5437 oh i thought these ones had beak toothed oh ok

@Chromegrillz

I love your channel, I look forward your next video.

@gaufrid1956

2y↑2

This makes a lot of sense! I love to watch the local avian beaked dinosaurs here where I live in Mindanao Philippines! Everything from the sunbirds and the finches to the raptors including the "Haribon", the "King of Birds", the Philippine Eagle!

@bortzmeyer

2y↑3

On the "you can fly even if you have teeth" discussion: bats have teeth, no?

@Eye_Exist

2y↑3

I like the idea of raptors evolving from birds very much. Raptor claw is useless (no obvious benefit with awful minuses) when used on ground level attacks, but if the raptor can drop down on its prey from trees, then the claw damage is multiplied by gravity. due to flight birds had access to trees, which they could use on owl attacks, which would naturally spark the evolution of the raptor claw and thus make the raptor itself evolving bigger and heavier beneficial, eventually leading into flight evolving into glide and raptors evolving into supermassive individuals like utahraptor. the giant raptors still stalked their prey from trees, but now they just glided on it and struck the massive claw through its skull.

@thegameranch5935

They can be used for climbing, and maybe to climb on their prey

@Eye_Exist

@@thegameranch5935 the claw would work on climbing to trees and hanging from the tree trunk, waiting for the prey to come. if you meant that.

@thegameranch5935

@@Eye_Exist not exactly… if a raptor find a pretty large prey it could climb on the animal using his claws and then eats the flesh (like mosquitoes but with more dying and less annoyance)
You could say that the raptor can climb the tree and then ambush attack.

@Eye_Exist

@@thegameranch5935 hmm, nice idea. to me it sounds like the next best thing if you can't straight up kill the target with a precise strike: sink the claw on the preys back and eat your stomach full and drop off.

I just very much stand for the tree climbing, because on ground level attacks it would be so obvious disadvantage, getting tangled on roots like anchor hanging from boat when running on low vegetation, and because big claw alone doesn't increase attack power, as it's heavier to use than small claws. sprinting and climbing on a living prey from ground level would be better with small hooked claws on every finger and toe that are all even sized, without having the previously mentiooned disadvantage.

@thegameranch5935

@@Eye_Exist true, i think our two hypothesis can be combined well
Think about it, a large hadrosaur can easily injure or even kill a raptor, so maybe it climbed on trees to get away from dangerous animals and ambush prey

It would be hard for it to get on more safe places to eat (if the raptor got on the side of the body the prey could easily throw it with his head), do you have any solution for this problem?

5 More Replies...

@mrdino524

Very great work! Love the video

@Lol0Wut

2y↑2

Another great video! The transition from reptile to birds is a facinating one. I do have a question, what music do you use for your videos?

@spatrk6634

2y↑1

FYI birds are still reptiles.

@user-qp5ik1ke9x

D12

@gobanito

2y↑3

Can you imagine how much more dangerous Cassowaries would be if they had teeth?

@quinndenver4075

2y↑1

I think they are so overrated danger wise. I would much rather go against one of those than say an ostrich

@Ealais76

@@quinndenver4075the problem is that cassowaries are more aggressive even if item not by a considerable amount

@UncleBadT

2y↑3

I'm not upset or anything, but you never touched on parrots, and I really don't know much about their history but they must have split off at some point cause of their zytodactyl toes

@janbaltes2863

2y↑1

This very interesting and entertaining, thank you :)

@pompey333

1y↑2

I heard birds lost their teeth because they were running a fight club. However, they kept it such a secret that no one ever found out for sure.

@daisho13

Another great vid, thanks 👍

@remanjecarter2787

2y↑4

I wonder if we could find a way to give them back their teeth

@romulus_

2y↑1

we have. inducing mutations in the talpid2 gene results in chicken embryos that grow teeth.

@isabellecowan-bergman5350

2y↑9

"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should."

@gutar5675

No thanks. I'd rather not have to worry about something flying at me to take a bite

@remanjecarter2787

@@romulus_ yes this is true, but I want a chicken that has the face of an alligator

@georgeparkins777

"Crikey, mate. That emu is wearing dintures."

2 More Replies...

@InfinityOrNone

2y↑3

The argument about teeth making birds too heavy to fly has always been EA-grade BS, and could be disproven as a concept with one word: "bats."

@Turdfergusen382

Great work as usual

@veryunusual126

And I just realized that your sub count is at 335k, which is fantastic, because I can remember when it was way lower and was thinking back then that it should be higher

@bonecanoe86

2y↑3

While hiking in the woods and hearing birdsong all around me I had a thought: If you were blind, you might still think dinosaurs ruled the world.

@stead6405

2y↑5

Archaeopteryx is no longer considered the first bird. While it is intermediate between more primitive bird-like dinosaurs like deinonychus and true birds, it lacked a number of traits of modern birds. Therefore, the exact transition from non Avian dinosaurs to birds is relatively unclear today.

@stonecodfish2365

It was me. I did it.

@stead6405

@@Me-yq1fl exactly. The pinpoint line won’t ever really be totally revealed

@samuellblake

You have one of the best youtube channels.

@_Solaris

Moth Light Media is candy.
One of the best.

@didyouheartheclarity8673

2y↑7

You have got it wrong. Birds lost their teeth due to the extinction of the toothbrush tree, and subsequent tooth decay, birds lost their teeth.

Jokes aside, dietary factors are almost an inevitable conclusion.

@Littlekoji-df1cf

2y↑3

Love from Finland.
I love to get some biiirrb facts.

@Len124

2y↑1

Great video, though I assume by "beaks" you're referring to a toothless mouth because birds like Hesperornis had keratinized beaks in the looser sense in combination with teeth.

@akarijiang9191

28w

agree with your conclusion

@approximateCognition

2y↑4

Ah, yes, the archosaur tradition of evolving a beak! Not exactly surprising birds evolved one more than once!

@isabellecowan-bergman5350

2y↑3

Ok but ... why do birds have beaks? I know they're for escaping shells, but I'd love an evolutionary history on beaks too now :) Tysm for your quality content!

@ashleygarza215

1y↑1

Please do a video covering each major extinction event, one that talks about the differences between each ‘period’, and one covering the evolution of humans!!!

I have always been interested in these things and you would definitely do them justice!

@fikriasrofi5312

1y↑1

1. Beak make flight easier
2. Beak reduce incubation time
3. Its not clear which one came first flight or fast incubation
4. The exact answer had not been found yet

@bobaldo2339

2y↑4

From not brushing after every meal?

@chesterdagoc5915

2y↑5

Im waiting for the creationists to comment and ruin the comment section here 😎

@raptorzilla0710

2y↑3

They’re already here 😞

@chesterdagoc5915

@@raptorzilla0710 dont worry paleontology is still popular than creationists who believe in bs due to that magic man up in the sky 😈

@ryuckosijiro123

2y↑1

Me: who believes both evolution and creation

@observingcat9049

@@raptorzilla0710 evolution isn’t all that believable, atheists have a lot more faith than theists to believe everything came from nothing which is scientifically impossible. We’ve also never witnessed a changing of kind which atheists claim is how we all came to be. And one last thing to add Jesus is superior to all creation and living and non living things and persons and persons without bodies!

@supertigerroadtrip5193

Adaptations are provable and observable. Interspecies development isn't. Every trait a bird has a dinosaur has had in one shape of another. It's not implausible that some theropod dinos became birds. Creationism never denies adaptations.

@chrissonnenschein6634

2y↑2

It would be interesting to compare the evolutionary timeline of “birds” as compared to the evolution of seeded plants with their pollinators & to the ultimare rise of asteraceae, etc...

@onlyonewhyphy

2y↑1

Very interesting. Subbed!

@Legoless

2y↑4

Lose*

@Dalpidar

These are my favorite evolution videos and keep my love of paleontology alive

@hope1575

2y↑1

I forgot about incubation time as an evolutionary pressure. It's likely that this would have been an even stronger selection factor in the aftermath of the impact event, contributing to why we are left with only the avian lineages we have today.