A 2009 review with the British palaeontologist Mike P. Taylor and colleagues agreed that Nigersaurus was in the position to feed With all the downturned head and neck posture proposed via the 2007 analyze, but contested that this was the habitual posture from the animal. The review famous which the "neutral" head and neck posture of recent animals will not essentially correspond to their habitual head posture.
Wafer-skinny fossils with slim bone plates usually are not the easiest items to protect and review. But dag nabit, someone's gotta do it!
The continues to be of Nigersaurus were being originally described by Taquet in 1976 as belonging to a dicraeosaurid, but in 1999 Sereno and colleagues reclassified it for a rebbachisaurid diplodocoid.[four] These scientists speculated that due to the fact small necks and tiny size was recognized amid basal diplodocoids, it might show these have been ancestral attributes from the team.
It is actually believed that these sauropod dinosaurs collected meals working with their large, broad mouths, comparable to grazing in contemporary cows. They'd likely are already “nonselective” of their diet program. two. Nigersaurus was among the 1st dinosaurs to secure a CT scan
It lived for the duration of a time in the event the location was lined in forests and braided rivers, and might have had to watch out to the presence of Sarcosuchus, an enormous relative of contemporary crocodiles.
Unfortunately, this has resulted in misunderstandings and occasional misuse in on the net conversations. Although the eye has sparked curiosity with regards to the dinosaur, Additionally, it underscores the value of cultural sensitivity and exact communication when talking about scientific discoveries.
Given that several rebbachisaurids inhabited latitudes that would are tropical to subtropical in the Middle Cretaceous, this pneumaticity could have helped the animals cope Together with the extremely significant temperatures. Based on Ibiricu and colleagues, this adaptation could be a rationale why rebbachisaurids have been the only real team of diplodocoids that survived into your Late Cretaceous.[21]
Those jaws held something never right before viewed in the sauropod dinosaur: It had been one of the initial dinosaur skulls with tooth, or "dental," batteries.
The adductor muscle of your jaw appears to acquire attached towards the quadrate as opposed to the supratemporal fenestra. Both this and another mastication muscles ended up very likely weak, and Nigersaurus is believed to obtain experienced among the weakest bites on the sauropods.[three] Furthermore, In line with Whitlock and colleagues in 2011, the smaller, virtually parallel nature of your tooth scratches and pits (a result of grit, which might not be received as generally by large-browsers) indicate that it ate reasonably tender, herbaceous plants such as lower-expanding ferns.
Improved yet, Those people tooth columns have been packed appropriate together with one another—like canned sardines. So a dinosaur armed with dental batteries could easily dwelling many hundred teeth (old and new) within its mouth.
Just about the most exclusive options of Nigersaurus was its rows of tiny, peg-like teeth, which had been arranged in a very straight line alongside the entrance of its jaws. These teeth have been constantly replaced all over the dinosaur’s everyday living, letting it to feed continually on tough vegetation.
This composition was amongst the 1st dinosaur skulls for being digitally reconstructed using CT scans, featuring unprecedented insights into its feeding mechanics.
Nigersaurus is known from many partial skeletons and isolated bones, which have offered useful details about its anatomy and conduct.
In conclusion, Nigersaurus was a novel and attention-grabbing dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous interval in what is currently Niger. Its rows of small teeth and specialized jaw framework designed it very well-suited to searching on lower-lying vegetation, and its fossils serve as a important source of specifics of the variety of existence that existed on this what dinosaur has 500 teeth planet an incredible number of a long time ago.