Could Giant Mammals Survive in the Jurassic Period?

Could giant mammals survive in the Jurassic Period? The macropredatory whale Livyatan and the other mammalian all-stars of the Cenozoic are dropped into the Jurassic Period, and we analyze how they’d survive. This speculative ecology video analyzes ten giant mammals and their diets, sizes, competitors, and threats if they were placed in the Jurassic Period. Smilodon, Megatherium, Livyatan, and others are ranked on a scale of 1 to 10 based on how they would adapt to their new ecosystem and reptilian rivals. Will these mammals thrive…or be eaten alive?

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Could mamalian megap survive in the Jurassic period this episode takes a team of 10 large mammals from the cenozoic era and plops them in the Jurassic when dinosaurs had taken over the world we’ll consider size diet competition and threats to score each mammal out of 10 which will Thrive and

Which will be eaten alive our first test subject is smil at on populator the gigantic saber-tooth cat from Poli toen South America it weighed between 200 and 400 kg as an adult making it more than twice as heavy as the largest modern cats it was an ambush predator and Grappler and

Isotopic studies show that it dined on ground slots glyptodon toxodon camels Catans and horses the Jurassic offers a different menu from what our furry friend is used to the small Argentinian prosauropods like a deop papasaurus would be a perfect entree small enough to be an easy meal while large enough to

Provide plenty of protein leonaire osaurus and brachy trapan were other great sources within that body plan isais Sora despite its spiky exterior may have been attempting meal as well we know that Smilodon took down more heavily armored animals like lipad Don after all it wasn’t the only carnivore

In the area however and would have needed to share with the small to medium therapods of South America piatnitzkysaurus iosaur and asalto Bator were large enough to hunt the same pre items and the latter two were big enough to even consider Smilodon as food the smaller therapods like Pandora vator and Condor

Raptor would have posed threats to saber-tooth kittens not being the apex predator would be quite a paradigm shift Smilodon was fast agile active and intelligent the long necks of the small Sora pods around it would be highly vulnerable and our theoretical breeding population of sabertooths wouldn’t have any difficulty feeding themselves

However they weren’t specialized for hunting unusually large prey like the bigger Sodom morphs so they’d be forced to compete with theropods their own size or bigger the average Jurassic temperatures would also be rough at around 5 to 10 celsi higher than today smil on populator earns a six on the Thrive read

In aive scale while not the predatory Allstar it was in its own time it was an adaptable carnivore that likely would have used parental care to its advantage to stay alive in a world ruled by gigantic killer reptiles next up is megatherium americanum hailing from Poli

To scene South America as well it was a browser that weighed up to 4 metric tons its bulk combined with its claws made it an unsavory Target for Hungry carnivores it itself was not a picky eater chomping down on grass herbs fruit Woody plants and possibly even carrying the Jurassic

Would limit its option somewhat given that true fruit hadn’t evolved yet but it would likely do fine on a diet of ferns conifers and sads native animals would give it quite a shock megatherium was used to being the big boy on campus but even the small sods like am magdalon

And brachy trapan were already in its league megatherium would be able to eat the low growing plants and keep to itself digging tunnels to maintain territory would be a powerful survival strategy megatherium was a beast and was more heavily armed than the other large herbivores it would be encountering

Small therapods like Pandora of vator and cond Raptor might attempt to go after the vulnerable young but you’d need the largest Hunters of the area like his fault of vator to even think about attacking an adult even then megatherium was quite capable in a brawl against a wbe hunter megatheriums Claws

And raw power would couple well with its unusually high agility at least for a sloth modern sloths exhibit maternal care for up to a year so it’s possible that their ancient relatives did as well that would be crucial in an environment where hungry dinosaurs are always

Looking for an easy meal but even if megatherium did exhibit Advanced parental care sloth’s reproductive rate is extraordinarily slow they give birth to one baby at a time and can only do so once every year and a half or so predation pressure on the young would be

Constant and one slip up would set a sloth family back years additionally the Jurassic was much warmer than the polia scene which hosted the most famous ice age that environmental stress would have made everything more difficult ult we give meum a four while physically intimidating its lifestyle and

Reproductive method are not suited to a hot house world of giant predators that would outpace it at every turn paraceratherium asiaticum is one of the team’s heavyweights a huge relative of the rhinoceros is stopped across a legacy in Eurasia and weighed between 8 and 17 metric tons it ate soft leaves in

Its own time and may have struggled with the rougher ferns pads Kinkos conifers and lepta strob Bales sustaining a body that massive on food you don’t like isn’t easy the neighbors wouldn’t have made things any easier the fossil record from that part of Eurasia is poor from

The Jurassic but vria from France was about as big abasa from relatively nearby China was smaller but hudis saurus was considerably bigger at over 50 tons the Sor pods would focus on the higher growing plants letting Pariser ethereum snuffle about the lower forage but the area was so huge that there was

Likely enough to go around anyway the question is what meat eaters would have dared to take on such a protein packed rhino again the fossil record in the area isn’t great in terms of Jurassic vertebrates there were some medium-sized Predators from Europe like ustr topist but they were far away and only would

Have threatened the young to begin with adult Paras ethereum would have been just fine at their colossal size Paras ethereum was bigger than the competition and far too big for any local Jurassic predators to take on it was used to living in Aid environments dominated by scrub and smaller plants however it

Would require a huge territory to maintain a decently sized population the climate in Jurassic Eurasia also swung between warm humid climbs and cold snaps but wasn’t too extreme relative to the alosine which was about 8° cus warmer than today Paras ethereum gets a solid seven predators and competitors in its

Area were sparse which minimizes the hazards posed by its low birth rate and slow growth it would be able to use its size to wander from place to place storing water and fat in large enough amounts to weather difficult seasons megatherium is up next everyone’s favorite giant hyenadons this bigheaded

Carnivore lived all over Pine Africa and weighed half a ton it chomped on goers arars giraffids antelopes small hippos bovids and horses in its Heyday and wouldn’t be terribly upset about his choices in the Jurassic period either the small sasur adlit from Morocco would be a tough meal but one worth fighting

For tudosa orus may be on the big side but wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for a group of megatherium to take down a single adult could probably kill an anti nitrous and most adult mespilus adjusting to the taste of reptilian meat might be strange but I

Doubt that a hyena D would be a terribly picky eater of course neither were the theropods afrovenator was just as big as megatherium and wouldn’t take kindly to a strange smelling upstart chomping into its food supply the terrasaurus was big enough not only to force megatherium to

Stay away from its food but it could have prayed on the mammal itself and while not competitors sorop pods like Allosaurus spinophorosaurus and jobaria were also big enough that they wouldn’t have seen megatherium as anything more than annoyance to be stomped upon megas ethereum was large enough to take on a

Variety of prey items and defend itself against most of the therapods in the area but heat would be a big issue while the pine was 2 to 3 C warmer than today the Jurassic was 10 to 15 higher it would need to regulate its activity level while still getting enough to eat

And would need to adapt to no longer being the Apex it gets a six on to parasitus Colossus the bubbly tubbly lard monster that owned the headlines in 2023 and was promptly downsized 70 plus tons is still nothing to sneeze at though especially for the esene it lived

Off the coast of Peru and was likely a shallows browser eating Crustaceans and mollusks and other weak Critters too foolish to flee we don’t know for sure though since the animal skull still hasn’t been uncovered as of this video’s writing in the Jurassic not much would have changed about its diet Crustaceans

Evolved in the Cambrian so there would have been plenty of crunchy treats for enormous friend and mollusks are at least as old heck in the Jurassic period most large bodied Dura fagus vertebrates had yet to evolve so parasitus is only real competition would have been from shell eating fish as for threats

Parasitus is so much bigger than anything else in the Jurassic that there wouldn’t be any Predators even a third of its weight granted it doesn’t seem equipped with any real Weaponry that we’ve yet discovered if a large pliosaur decided to take a chunk out of it parasitas may not have been the most

Capable of Defending itself parasitus was huge and essentially would have had a niche all to itself the Jurassic was warm but parasitus lived in the eocene which was quite a bit warmer than today we give it a five it would likely survive for far longer than it would in

The Triassic if the pord didn’t grow massive to meet the new source of delicious fatty meat megalac chenas famed as thrund Ste in The Hobbit movies was busy trampling Orcs before it was teleported to the Jurassic well it was actually trotting around police to senior Asia all the way from Ireland to

Russia but hey Middle Earth is supposed to be an alternate history of our world anyway so who’s to say there weren’t Orcs to trample in the ice age anyway megalos was a half ton Grazer that chewed on herbs shrubs grasses sedges and Sage Brush almost all of those

Existed in one former another during the Jurassic so it’ be pretty much set in terms of the menu it would need to share with the sods and ornithopods of its vast territory including a monia dson trus draconic miragaya and others its height puts it in a good spot to both

Eat the foliage growing at low Heights as well as the taller bushes and short trees deer are also not above nibbling on carcasses or small vertebrates for some extra protein megalos serus lived with cave liines and Cave hyenas but the Jurassic brings a host of new predators

To its St with a long list of difficult pronounced names they range in size from the diminutive proceratosaurus which would have still been deadly to a young Irish elk all the way to giants like torvosaurus which pushed 4 tons megaloceros was fast fortunately but needed to eat a tremendous amount to

Maintain its Fast Metabolism in large size with the abnormally high density of large Predators it would have struggled to forge safely hurting Behavior would have been crucial here Sentry Duty would be the best way to keep a group safe from animals too big and dangerous to effectively fight the flesh eating

Monsters of the Jurassic combined with the oppressive heat prevent megalos serus from reaching higher than a four on the Thrive Arena life scale the Colombian Mammoth May Faire better this Titan from place to see North and Central America was a browser a grazer a digger and whatever else it wanted to be

A nin ton Behemoth it ate grasses sedges needles Oak Maple and just about any plant it could find making it Child’s Play to adapt to the simple gymnosperm dominated ecosystem of the Jurassic its long trunk and tusks would be helpful in ripping up plants below the desired

Browsing range of of the other animals its size which would be sorod dinosaurs for the most part as a matter of fact the Colombian Mammoth may have an advantage in being smaller than many other animals in the area giants like Apatosaurus barosaurus brachiosaurus and supersaurus would have their way with

The Treetops and foliage of middling height while giant ornithopods like sosur is focused on the ground level Plants the mammoth’s adaptability means it could eat whatever plant life was placed in front of it switching niches on a whim it may be a theme so far that giant cenotic herbivores struggle to

Deal with large predators and and that’s no different here but you can’t blame the mammoth it’s just a fact that the Mesozoic field did by far the most dangerous and physically powerful land Predators ever nothing before or since has quite managed to reach the Majesty of the mega theropods and the Jurassic

Fielded beasts worthy of the giant herbivores It produced Allosaurus was everywhere and I mean everywhere according to John Foster as much as 75% of the carnivore biomass in the Morrison was just Allosaurus that’s a multiple ton Predator that was probably the most common dinosaur in the area it wasn’t

The scariest however torvosaurus tanai was a brute itself at 4 to 5 tons although much more rare and there was one area of North America that the Colombian Mammoth would have needed to avoid at all costs Oklahoma well specifically Kenton Oklahoma this area in the late Jurassic was a furnace

Reaching up to 50° C in the summer and was home to one of the biggest therapods of all time Sor fagax Maximus Sor fagax is known from about a dozen specimens and ranges in size from 5 to 8 tons it’s equipped with powerful arms with hooked Claws and was a stocky slow Hunter

Perfect for taking on the 20 plus tons sods of the area but the Colombian Mammoth at a poultry 9 tons would have been a snack for snacks especially considering that sagenex has only ever been discovered in assemblages of multiple individuals the mammoth’s generalist diet means it would have been

Nutritionally successful and it was big enough to defend itself against most Predators social grouping in defensive Rings would be effective strategies especially when coupled with their intelligence however their size and strength would be less effective against predators designed to take on prey much larger than even they were additionally

Overheating would be a serious issue in the Jurassic and the mammoths would suffer from their slow reproductive rate they wouldn’t be able to keep up with the r selected sorop pods and orthopods to ate their food and giant theropods would slowly Whittle away at their population the Colombian Mammoth gets a

Four a far cry from its dominance in the Triassic period liuon melvi the enormous macro predator whale of the myos scene is a different story this monster lived fin to fin with a totus Megalodon and survived likely giving as good as it got when the two Titans clashed at 50 to 60

Tons it’s one of the world’s biggest predators and it DED on other whales pinnipeds and sharks in the Jurassic it wouldn’t have such fatty dining options but the Plesiosaurus pliosaurus and osaurus of the world’s oceans would make fine enough Replacements it’s difficult to fully Express how outgunned the

Jurassic oceans are in this scenario the largest macro predators of the Jurassic were the big pliosaurus like the kimid monster at about 10 m and tempod danosaur which was the last giant iosaur approximately the same size or a little bigger temno was a fierce Hunter for

Sure but it wasn’t equipped to handle a predator three times its mass with teeth the size of machetes liuon was a monster and Not only would it not have any true rivals in the Jurassic but it would make meals out of the previous apex predators to make matters worse the mayine tropical

Ocean was comparable in temperature to the middle Jurassic so the home terrain Advantage would be essentially old ified the only disadvantage that liuon possesses here is a slow reproduction rate of giant cations but given how dominant it would be over everything in its environment that wouldn’t really be

A problem liuon takes home A Perfect 10 from the Jurassic oceans our ninth Contender is a new one to the series sto tetraodon was a four tusked elephant that lived in the myosin and Pine and has been found in Kenya Uganda Arabia and even Italy its two pairs of tusks indicate an interesting

Lifestyle it was huge at 11 to 12 tons and would have needed to both dig and browse in order to sustain its body mass given that it lived in a wet area it may have sifted through water plants to find enough food it may have needed to do the

Same in the Jurassic as well as survive onsy cads and ferns the large herbivores of the area aren’t as well known but it’s possible that stigo tetraodon may have faced competition from migrating herds of sorop pods from the south theasaurus spinophorosaurus jobaria and atlasaurus were roughly in its size

Range or bigger and would cut down on its precious food supply true giants like giraffa Titan would have focused on higher growing plants outside of sto’s range but in terms of predators stego wouldn’t have much to worry about afrovenator may have attacked its young but the famous elephant group defense would be mostly

Effective against such a small Predator theasaurus if it ventured North from Tanzania would be more of a threat but not existential the issues for this wacky elephant would be chiefly environmental given the higher Jurassic temperatures and low food supply overall it earns a five our last team member on this list

Of 10 invasives is Deon shenis the winner of the Triassic round a half ton native of Masia North America Deon is the perfect omnivore it devoured nuts Roots Vines meat and even bones in the Jurassic it would have rampaged as before gobbling up plant matter and meat

Alike and forcing the native fauna to respond or be rooted out medium herbivores and carnivores like camptosaurus catosaurus Dilophosaurus gargoyleosaurus and marshosaurus all would have been put under pressure but huge Carnival like torvosaurus and Allosaurus would welcome the sudden influx of fresh meat and they’d actually

Be big and strong enough to take on the Satan Pig and add it to their own menu s a fortunately is less likely to take notice it’s too busy decimating the Colombian Mammoth population to deal with a biker gang of demonic bacon Deon was a fast runner with good eyesight and

A flexible diet it had strong jaws and could defend itself in a pinch and although it wasn’t a true Pig may have been just as Fierce of a fighter it did need a high energy intake to sustain its brutal lifestyle and it may have struggled to adapt to an ecosystem in

Which it was no longer the scariest bully at the watering hole it wasn’t strong enough to take on the giant predators of the Jurassic but it was certainly mean enough to wedge itself into a multitude of niches and gain a solid hoof hold on this ancient Battlefield it’s worthy of a seven

Finishing off our list thank you for traveling to the Jurassic period with me comment below with your thoughts on how these animals would fare as well as what you’d like to see in future installments don’t forget to check out the first episode and join the channel so I can keep bringing you

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