We have a correction! At 4:27, we say that, aside from Odontochelys, no known turtles had teeth. That was incorrect, because some other extinct turtles did have teeth in their palates. What we should have said was that Odontochelys was the first known turtle with teeth. We also wanted to clarify that the bony plates found in pareiasaurs are called osteoderms rather than scutes. The term "scutes" refers to the keratinous layer that covers the osteoderms. Thanks to the viewer who pointed this out!

It sounds like our understanding of turtle evolution is progressing, um, really slowly.

Turtles: we like to excavate Evolution: take these small legs Turtles: we need to have more lift Evolution: Let's fuse your ribs so you can hold yourself better Turtles: we're too slow walking Evolution: have you heard about Water?

You mention 2008 and I go, "oh wow, so this JUST happened!" Then I take a second, and go, "oh..." I'm getting old.

"You know how scientists are, nobody likes a good centuries-long argument more than they do!" Hoo boy! Y'all don't know philosophers.

It makes sense. Turtles often dig to lay their eggs, that could be a hint for their burrowing origins.

I'm 54 and wish my school science classes had been like PBS Eons, I was taught mostly accepted science for the time but never heard a word that this might change. I knew back then that what was thought technologically possible changed all the time but I did thought modern scientific knowledge was all fixed unchangeable facts. I thinks kids should be taught about the scientific method as early as possible no matter how simplified it has to be for younger kids and that teaching should be retaught every year of school in more and more complete forms using real life examples.I've always picked science class when offered a choice in school and studied electronic in college but I was never taught the scientific method directly, I think I had been out of school for a few years the first time I encountered the scientific method being described and that is despite being a science nerd for all my life. Some of my lab reports would have been a lot different if I had known about it, I would not have fudge my results to fit the theory but tried and figured out why it did not fit and explain that.

"The thing is clearly a turtle!" is one of the cutest things a researcher can say when they are researching Turtle History! 🐢

You get a like for slipping in "Turtles all the way down"

I need this lady to be my teacher for all subjects. She's so absolute and understandable

I love how people have debates about turtles.

"it had all the requirements of what makes an official turtle... but..." story of my life

Do one on the evolution of mollusks! It’s really interesting, and there was a new transitional mollusk discovered last year that may shed some light on their evolution.

Thanks a bunch for digging into this!

I just love this series. If schools taught this stuff in such an interesting manner as this, perhaps students might find it intriguing instead of boring.

Please, do a video about the origin of Orcas... I loooooove Orcas Or you could talk about dolphins in general, but mainly Orcas lol

200 million years of setup for a pun. I'd say it was worth it.

I love this channel because it answers questions I never thought to have!

Congrats on getting on trending! If any channel deserves it, it's this one. One of my favorite channels by far :) Keep it up!!!

This was so helpful, I am doing an assignment on adaptations/evolution right now and need to do an evolution timeline for a turtle. Perfect vid, thanks!

made me almost die from how cute that baby turtle was crawling on the sand

I love this series. It makes me wonder about questions I never thought I wanted to ask.

wow, it is seriously so cool that informative videos like this can still get on trending! no clickbait, no sensationalism, just knowledge. that gives me hope for channels like my own 💪

8:12 - "Turtles all the way down." I see what you did there.

Wow, I didn't even imagine that turtle shells could provoke such a debate :O

I would assume that wider, flatter, ribs support more weight. This might come in handy if you are a burrower with megafauna stomping around on the ground above.

I am addicted and to these videos. I’ve always lived the study of evolution but I’ve been somewhat close-minded and only studied human-evolution . But there is a whole array of life that evolved from something else and these videos are just fantastic!

"These were sometimes called the ugliest reptiles, but we don't judge here." 😂😂😂 Loved that part

Teenaged Evolved Normal Turtles, TEENAGED EVOLVED NORMAL TURTLES, TEENAGE EVOLVED NORMAL TURTLES, heroes in half shell.

Interesting -- so basically the shell developed from the inside out (ribs), not from the outside in (scutes).

That was the best Easter Egg joke of all time! Great book John and excellent writing Eons team. Love the cameo.

I'm meant to be studying for my astronomy exams but I never thought I'd find why turtles developed their shells so interesting! 🤓

Can you talk about the Entelodonts? Maybe the diversity of the Tyrannosauridae?

I just love the artworks and visual aids you present. Probably one of my favorite series that's put out by the Green Brothers and PBS

Hey there! Just wanted to say thank you so much for putting this series together. As someone who was raised in a fundamentalist culture that only taught literal creationism, this has been a great series for catching up on evolutionary theory. Keep up the good work!

It's amazing how many huge discoveries are made even to this day

Turtles be complex.

Thanks! It's always as fun watching Eons! The topic I'd like to see would be the other species of now extinct humans.

1:37 Ah yes, pure reptiles. Lizards, snakes, dinosaurs, and *biRdS*

This was the very first Eons video I ever came across, and it’s so nice finding it again.

Fantastic video as always! I'm interested in the evolution of butterflies actually. How they come to be so colorful and diverse. Anyway I'm sure the next video will be amazing!

Great video as always! Still waiting for that video on the evolution of one of the greatest biological inventions ever: the egg :)

I am the student of Microbiology...PBS eons videos are so interesting, I think I've watched all of them. Please continue more.

Thank you! Wonderful content, educational and your voice is perfection. Really nice to listen to.

I remember asking you guys about this so it's great that I was able to find out! Thank you! :D

I love the "Turtles all the way down" reference! Great video, as usual :-)

Makes a lot of sense. I used to have some small turtles as a pet. They often did the "digging" motion and I was always wondering why they'd do that, given that they're living in the water. It all comes together, knowing that they evolved from a ground digging animal.

i love the way you say 'Scutes'!

2:16 Everybody gangster till the early turtles start walkin

What a splendid production on the evolution of turtles. Thanks much!

I love this channel, so many fascinating topics in natural history are explored here. Keep up the great work!

I love how transparent this show is about how sciences don't always have the answers to everything. They point out all the unanswered questions, and explain unproven assumptions that archeologists use at the moment. It's okay to not know everything, and it's okay to be wrong sometimes, as long as you keep trying to improve. To me, that's true education.

My whole life I’ve been arguing with people that birds are reptiles. Finally, I have confirmation.

"The shells on turtles, do they spawn with it" -xQcOW

I feel closer to my turtle now, like I understand him better. Thank you for this video 🥰

you put much effort into your vidoes. you guys really deserve more subscribers and viewers

So wait if birds are from Eureptilia does that mean birds are reptiles? I always thought birds were their own seperate group.

Thank you for this. A couple of months ago I tried to do some research to figure out where modern chelonians came from. Here in the UK we call aquatic chelonians turtles, and all land chelonians tortoises but never turtles, and when I started watching some US documentaries I got confused when they referred to tortoises as turtles. I started to wonder if maybe all tortoises are turtles but not all turtles are tortoises. When I tried to find out I just kept getting sites telling me that turtles and tortoises were the same thing, and when I tried to find the earliest known fossil chelonian to see if it was aquatic or terrestrial I could never find a straight answer. Of course when it comes to Paleontology things are always changing, in a decade ideas now could be considered as incorrect as featherless dromeosaurs are today. But still, this vid has given me some closure. As to what I'd like a vid on. Maybe Spinosaurids? I love those weird croco-like semi-aquatic dinosaurs especially Baryonyx, and there's obviously been some fairly recent upheaval in regards to posture, so it would make an interesting video to discuss that.

"Turtles all the way down"... Clever ;)

Great stuff! I love this Eons series.

How about the diversity of megafauna like Buffalo, bison, yak and other cow like herding animals and how they spread so far across the globe

I clicked on this instantly lol. I never walk away dissatisfied with what I've learned on this channel 😄

This was fun to watch. I would like to see more on turtles an the different Geno's over the past how ever may millions of years.

the background music in this is kinda eerie and nostalgic.. I can't find the word to describe it but I really love it

The evolution of spiders plz spiders

100 points for "isn't turtles all the way down"

Eons has become a mainstay in my studies. Great!

I had always wondered how the hell turtles got their awesome shells in the first place. Thank you for sharing this!!

Bradysaurus is now an ancient quarterback for the Patriots. Go figure.

Within an hour I have watched a braiding video, a Minecraft video, and a video about turtle evolution. I am either a very diverse person or maybe I just don’t know what to watch

Not to detract from the awesome info and content of this (or other) video, but I could listen to this young lady speak all day. Her voice has a wonderful quality which makes it easy to listen to without being boring or off-putting. I would like to see other content that she narrates, does anyone know her name and/or other channels that she works with?

I would very much love a video on birds! The evolution and state of the “Aves” class

That subtle Hank Green reference lol

Awesome video ! I love Eons

amazing, fascinating video! I rolled my eyes so hard at the tatwd reference though hahaha

LOVE the content but really wish the episodes were longer!

Can u do archeopteryx plz? Its one of my favourite dinosaurs, both because of its importance in archeology and evolution of reptiles and birds and because it looks awesome. Also can u mention who suggested the video in the beginning of the video itself. thank you, love ur work

8:11 OMGSH

I LOOOOVE TURTLE!! Thank you for this amazing video!

Watching this in 2020 and I've gotten used to the "Thank you to our sponsors" line which was always somehow written in theme with the topic. I was kinda hoping you'd say: "Thanks for shelling out". Lol

What do we know about animal habits on the last super continent? How did a super continent change evolution?

Epic video as always, thank you #PBSEONSISLOVE

I don't know why but i love listening to this. Great vid, thanks for the information.

I like these mini docus Love this lil lady specifically. She just draws me to her lectures.

Turtles all the way down! in history

2:21 Poor thing, it looks so cute in the artwork, petition to change its nickname to cute dopey boi :'''D

Please make a video on how insects evolved. Thanks for the amazing videos.

That was illuminating. Thank you. A thumbs up for you.

Are you certain none of those fossils came from my house? Because my brother left a tortoise behind when he moved out, and I'm pretty sure that thing is immortal.

"Turtles all the way down" Sneaky.

No way, next to a space channel you guys also have a channel about evolution?!? I have so much to watch now :)

I had to read a couple papers for tomorrow. After doing so, I came across this video that covered all I needed to know... dang

Please go videos on plant evolution! Especially euphorbias and cacti!!!!!!

I'd like to see an episode on the South America mammals and their relationships to others worldwide.

In addition to these analyses being fascinating, a lot of effort has gone into the research to explain separate bits of evidence and make sense of them and to properly connect them to make sense and to fit what is known, so far. The explanations for the wider ribs to anchor the turtles when burrowing is a case in point, so understanding animal behaviours enables proofs to be connected in a new way and previous non-turtle fossils to be re-evaluated as an older member of that genus (is that the right word?) after all. The fluidity of our knowledge at any time, ie what we know so far, allows us (or I should say you the palaeontologists), a measure of confidence that what you propose is actually so, or to state that there are disagreements between you and you present the different ideas, where that is so. This is what makes your programmes so interesting: your ability to change as new knowledge contradicts old to modify the story accordingly. Even if there may be bitter squabbles between palaeontologists, these do not in the end concern us, the non experts, and a couple of theories can sit side by side, notwithstanding each faction may still disagree, until new information is dug upon the field or rediscovered in the cabinets to confuse everybody some more or to confirm one hypothesis over the other. And all this material is presented so clearly, which means that countless hours have gone into making the explanations understandable and clear, even down to the scripts (and the jokes!)! You have a great team.

I can see how hard it may have been to put this together.....and I appreciate it

Cant we just ask donatello? Hes a scientist

she has a great explaining voice, very comfortable to listen to :)

This was really interesting. Maybe a video about how different types of horns and antlers developed? Like why do some animals have tusks but others have antlers or horns and why are they made of different kinds of bone etc?

You had me at Pappochelys! Subscribed!