Factor Trace
I create animated explanation videos on topics of science, ranging from natural history to environmentalism.
Hi! I'm Eric, a graphic designer who enjoys everything about science. I try to communicate scientific concepts through my videos with the help of animated graphics and motion designs.
New videos are constantly in the works!
Consider subscribing on Patreon to help Factor Trace create more and better videos.
Factor Trace
What dinosaur family would you like to see explained in the future? Let me know which one you're interested in most!
2 months ago | [YT] | 618
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Factor Trace
The most requested video for the "Every Dino Explained" series, the Carcharodontosaurids, will be out this weekend! Stay tuned and subscribe so you won't miss out when it's published.
Or you can watch it now on my Patreon page: www.patreon.com/posts/every-explained-128416850?ut…
3 months ago | [YT] | 1,071
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Factor Trace
The biotech company Colossal Biosciences just announced that they "de-extinct" the dire wolf. Experts have cautioned that this announcement is misleading and could potentially harm the public perspective on biodiversity loss and extinction in general.
The three dire wolves the company created are not real dire wolves, they are genetically modified grey wolves. Thus the more accurate term should be "proxy species creation" not "de-extinction". These GM wolf individuals WILL NOT and should not be released to the wild, so any arguments that the company is doing this to fix nature is, at least partially, a false claim.
My takeaway here is that this headline-making claim that a company has resurrected a species extinct since the ice age is a mere publicity stunt to raise the company's monetary value. These "de-extinction" projects will not combat biodiversity loss and shouldn't be treated as the solution for it.
The video announcement by Colossal Biosciences wants to frame this as a win for nature. And I find it to be very reductive, not scientific and PR-stunt like. To get a more nuanced and thorough perspective on this topic, watch the video I made about de-extinction, linked below.
https://youtu.be/KW8w-Au2peQ
4 months ago | [YT] | 335
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Factor Trace
ah sod it...
*unstegos your saurus*
9 months ago | [YT] | 1,038
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Factor Trace
Asiatyrannus xui, a new tyrannosaurid species from China has just been discovered!
This post is a little late, the paper describing the new dino was published on 25 July 2024, less than a month after I published my "Every Tyrannosaurid, Explained" video.
This is an interesting dino, as it has a deep snout, uncharacteristic of other known Asian tyrannosaurids. I would've loved to include this taxon in the video. But oh well, poor timing.
Didn't expect my Tyrannosaurid video to get irrelevant sooner than the Spinosaurid one.
Source: Zheng, W., Jin, X., Xie, J., & Du, T. (2024). The first deep-snouted tyrannosaur from Upper Cretaceous Ganzhou City of southeastern China. Scientific Reports, 14(1). doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-66278-5
Skeletal reconstruction:
W. Zheng, X. Jin, J. Xie & T. Du, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
1 year ago | [YT] | 679
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Factor Trace
A new complete dinosaur family list video is out! This time we explore the royal family, the "tyrant king" and his relatives, the Tyrannosaurids.
The video is now available on Patreon! www.patreon.com/posts/every-explained-106702927?ut…
Support me on Patreon and get access to many exclusive perks as well as early access to new videos!
1 year ago | [YT] | 344
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Factor Trace
I had the pleasure of being invited as a guest in @pinoytoons podcast "Project Vibes" for the second time.
In this episode, we talked about the Holocene extinction in greater detail, including how eating insects can help save the planet!
Listen to the full discussion in the video linked below.
1 year ago | [YT] | 46
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Factor Trace
The Holocene Extinction series is wrapped! I wrote down a short personal journal about the series on Patreon. Go read it if you're interested. Don't worry, it's free!
www.patreon.com/posts/holocene-series-91001314?utm…
1 year ago | [YT] | 44
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Factor Trace
Size comparison of some of the longest-named dinosaurs.
Full poster on my Patreon page: www.patreon.com/FactorTrace
2 years ago (edited) | [YT] | 95
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Factor Trace
Prehistoric Planet Season 2 teaser trailer just dropped and it looks fantastic! Check it out guys if you haven't already!
https://youtu.be/y5O1ZXcGQlA
2 years ago | [YT] | 63
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