Finally, back again inside the lab, Sereno had to request a 2nd view from colleagues who labored on fossil fish along with other reptiles just before he figured it out.
Dinosaur-hunters are accustomed to locating dental batteries in beaked herbivores just like the horned Triceratops and shovel-billed Edmontosaurus. However they're exceptional One of the sauropods.
Fossils of the dinosaur have been first explained in 1976, but it was only named Nigersaurus taqueti in 1999, immediately after further more and a lot more total remains have been found and described. The genus identify indicates "Niger reptile", and the particular name honours the palaeontologist Philippe Taquet, who identified the main continues to be.
Once the iguanodontian Lurdusaurus, Nigersaurus was quite possibly the most a lot of megaherbivore. Other herbivores within the exact development include things like Ouranosaurus, Elrhazosaurus, and an unnamed titanosaur. Alongside one another, these compose one of several handful of associations of megaherbivores using a equilibrium of sauropods and enormous ornithopods.
It lived throughout a time if the area was coated in forests and braided rivers, and would've needed to watch out with the presence of Sarcosuchus, a giant relative of contemporary crocodiles.
Despite its more compact size, Nigersaurus is notable for its exclusive adaptations, particularly its specialized teeth and feeding mechanisms, which distinguish it in paleontological experiments.
These teeth ended up specialised for successfully cropping and grinding tender, very low-lying vegetation. The dinosaur’s teeth have been continually changed, with new types rising just about every fourteen times to take care of features.
The dental constructions of Nigersaurus also propose that they ate soft crops in substantial amounts to fulfill their nutritional prerequisites. They generally ate angiosperms, horsetails, and ferns as food. Numerous paleontologists also believe that their five hundred closely packed teeth arrangement also functioned similar to a comb. This comb-like teeth arrangement may have also aided them in filtering and taking in aquatic plants.
As it was a prey animal, it was vital for Nigersaurus to have movement hypersensitivity to detect any likely threats.
The skull of a Nigersaurus was fabricated from slim bones and experienced a lot of smaller 500 teeth dinosaur openings and pores. These features offered them wonderful overall flexibility in feeding on the bottom. The muzzle on the Nigersaurus was vast and long which aided it in taking in tiny ground-centered vegetation.
In 2017, the Argentinian palaeontologist Lucio M. Ibiricu and colleagues examined the postcranial skeletal pneumaticity in the skeletons of rebbachisaurids, and instructed that it absolutely was an adaptation for lowering the density from the skeleton, and that this could have reduced the muscle Strength required to move your body, and also the heat generated in the process.
Nigersaurus (/niːˈʒɛərsɔːrəs, ˈnaɪdʒərsɔːrəs/) is often a genus of rebbachisaurid sauropod dinosaur that lived in the course of the center Cretaceous time period, about 115 to a hundred and five million years ago. It was found out during the Elrhaz Formation in a location named Gadoufaoua, in Niger.
We have been closing in on that goal speedy since we came on a skeleton a few days later! This skeleton is lying on its facet Together with the tail curved upward. The curve from the spine steps about fifteen ft.
The sauropod's jaw seems Practically like a sizable nail clipper, with substantial rows of numerous teeth on its upper and lessen jaws. It Practically didn’t seem to in shape into its cranium when Sereno was seeking to piece it with each other.