In 2020, the French palaeontologist Julien Benoit and colleagues tested lateral semicircular canal correlation to go posture on modern day mammals, and located that although there was considerable correlation concerning the reconstructed and true head postures, the aircraft from the semicircular canal was not held horizontally during the resting pose as inferred.
A 2015 cladistic research by Wilsona and also the French palaeontologist Ronan Allain discovered Rebbachisaurus alone to group Together with the nigersaurines, as well as the authors prompt that Nigersaurinae was consequently a junior synonym of Rebbachisaurinae (due to the fact that identify would've priority).
Ongoing Tooth Alternative: Teeth ended up changed just about every fourteen days, making certain a pointy, practical dental battery to manage with frequent have on from grazing.
Nigersaurus is a crucial discovery for paleontologists since it helps to get rid of gentle within the evolution and diversity of sauropods during the mid-Cretaceous period.
What dinosaur has 500 teeth? An unorthodox herbivore, this reptile grazed in what's now the Sahara Desert a hundred and ten million yrs in the past. These sauropod dinosaurs collected food stuff having a major, wide mouth; the snout was wider when compared to the back again of your creature's head on the original fossil cranium.
If correct, it might starkly contrast with most sauropod reconstructions, displaying the animal Keeping its head horizontally.
We cautiously brushed the sand off the one hundred ten million-calendar year-aged bones and dug channels among the major regions of the skeleton. Quickly We are going to cover Each and every spot in plaster so which the skeleton is usually transported from the sector and back for the laboratory.
Its cranium was quite specialised for feeding. It experienced four massive facet fenestrae, openings within the skull and skinny bones. It experienced a large muzzle filled with a lot more than 500 teeth, which have been changed around just about every 14 times. The jaws could have experienced a keratinous sheath, anything like a extensive beak. Nigersaurus is the only recognized tetrapod animal to acquire had jaws wider compared to cranium and teeth that extended laterally throughout the entrance.
Head's Up! (Perhaps) For the reason that Nigersaurus ate with its head down, professionals have puzzled about its posture. Sereno and his co-authors after argued that the herbivore aimed its face and neck downwards — whether it had been feeding what dinosaur has 500 teeth or not — being a issue of routine.
It had close to five hundred thin teeth in its jaw which were replaced with new teeth in two months. Its upper jaw teeth had been bigger than its lower jaw teeth. Moreover, Its jaw was Considerably broader in comparison to the cranium.
It even more argued the orientation on the semicircular canals varies appreciably within modern day species, and is particularly hence not reliable for analyzing head posture.[23] This was supported via the Spanish palaeontologist Jesús Marugán-Lobón and colleagues inside of a 2013 research that prompt the techniques employed by Sereno's group had been imprecise, and that Nigersaurus habitually held its head like other sauropods.[24]
This Nigersaurus was a hatchling, probably a lot less than one particular yr from hatching when it died and was fossilized.
The dinosaur's vertebrae was full of air pockets similar to People of birds, so the dinosaur was possible quite mild, as well. Its Mind was concerning the size of the walnut, which can be kind of normal for sauropods, Sereno states.
Skeletal diagram of Nigersaurus taqueti, illustrating identified fossil things and size comparison which has a human, depicting this Cretaceous sauropod's exceptional Actual physical framework