Nigersaurus experienced a amazing dental battery consisting of about 500 narrow, intently packed teeth, organized in rows alongside its broad, flat jaw.
Nigersaurus (/niːˈʒɛərsɔːrəs, ˈnaɪdʒərsɔːrəs/) is often a genus of rebbachisaurid sauropod dinosaur that lived for the duration of the center Cretaceous period of time, about 115 to 105 million a long time ago. It absolutely was learned while in the Elrhaz Formation in a region named Gadoufaoua, in Niger.
Regardless of its smaller sized measurement, Nigersaurus is noteworthy for its unique adaptations, especially its specialized teeth and feeding mechanisms, which distinguish it in paleontological reports.
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If legitimate, it will starkly contrast with most sauropod reconstructions, showing the animal Keeping its head horizontally.
As we continue on to review this fascinating creature, we've been reminded on the intricate and various paths that evolution may take.
We are not referring to AA Duracells below. Dental batteries ended up effective food processing equipment used by lots of plant-feeding on dinos.
A 2015 cladistic examine by Wilsona and the French palaeontologist Ronan Allain identified Rebbachisaurus itself to group with the nigersaurines, plus the authors recommended that Nigersaurinae was hence a junior synonym of Rebbachisaurinae (because that identify would have precedence).
And what a skeleton it had been! The newfound fossils gave us our 1st think Nigersaurus about the dino's challenging dental batteries and vacuum cleaner mouth. Sereno named the species Nigersaurus taqueti — being an homage to French paleontologist Philippe Taquet — in 1999.
This bizarre, very long-necked dinosaur is characterised by its unusually broad, straight-edged muzzle tipped with much more than 500 replaceable teeth. The initial fossil cranium of Nigersaurus is one of the 1st dinosaur skulls to generally be digitally reconstructed from CT scans.
Nearby lay Element of the backbone as well as the hip bones. This was a mean consumer—the bones are from the skeleton that would measure about 30 ft very long! We hope to find much more proof of the sharp-toothed creature as the sphere period goes on.
The dinosaur's vertebrae was crammed with air pockets comparable to those of birds, And so the dinosaur was very likely quite light, also. Its Mind was with regards to the dimension of the walnut, that is kind of common for sauropods, Sereno suggests.
Nigersaurus was in all probability a browser, and fed with its head near the bottom. The location of its brain that detected smell was compact, although its brain dimension was similar to that of other dinosaurs. There has been discussion on regardless of whether its head was habitually held downwards, or horizontally like other sauropods.