The continues to be of Nigersaurus were initially explained by Taquet in 1976 as belonging into a dicraeosaurid, but in 1999 Sereno and colleagues reclassified it as being a rebbachisaurid diplodocoid.[4] These scientists speculated that due to the fact short necks and small dimensions was acknowledged among the basal diplodocoids, it might suggest these were ancestral characteristics with the group.
Nigersaurus likely made use of its dental batteries to competently approach minimal-lying crops like ferns and horsetails, which it collected with its vast muzzle. It most likely fed at floor degree resulting from its limited neck, and its teeth would have worn out immediately from shearing by way of challenging vegetation.
Paleontologists think that their conduct might be in comparison with now’s cows. Nigersaurus were social and remained herds as a safety tactic. Due to insufficient fossil evidence, the replica system of Nigersaurus is not really recognised.
Its cranium was extremely specialised for feeding. It had 4 huge facet fenestrae, openings inside the skull and thin bones. It had a wide muzzle stuffed with a lot more than 500 teeth, which had been replaced all-around every fourteen days. The jaws could possibly have had a keratinous sheath, some thing like a huge beak. Nigersaurus is the one acknowledged tetrapod animal to get had jaws broader in comparison to the skull and teeth that extended laterally through the front.
Nigersaurus is a crucial discovery for paleontologists as it helps to lose gentle on the evolution and variety of sauropods during the mid-Cretaceous period of time.
In 2019, Mannion and colleagues pointed out that given that Nigersaurus was discovered to generally be the sister taxon of all other nigersaurines in certain studies, a Rebbachisaurinae clade may well not necessarily include Nigersaurus itself (and also the proven fact that the place of Rebbachisaurus could adjust in potential analyses), and supported the continued use on the title Nigersaurinae above Rebbachisaurinae for all rebbachisaurids a lot more closely associated 500 teeth dinosaur with Nigersaurus than to Limaysaurus.
As we’ve witnessed, Nigersaurus had a wide muzzle and numerous teeth beautifully fitted to consuming small-lying crops. This food plan and Life style would've expected the creature to have a regular supply of replacement teeth, mainly because it would've worn out its tooth crowns swiftly. A study published from the journal PLOS Just one
Its limited neck would have also been an adaptation to this floor-level feeding actions, because it would not are in a position to succeed in higher into trees like A few other sauropods.
Nonetheless, this claim has become contested by other researchers who think Nigersaurus was possibly more usual of other sauropods.
Nigersaurus is believed to behave much like other herbivore sauropods. They had most likely spent most of their time in hang-dog positions and grazing low-lying vegetation.
Its special dental framework indicates that it may have experienced a special feeding system when compared to other sauropods, and its presence in Africa indicates that these kind of dinosaurs have been additional common than Formerly believed.
On the basis of microtomography scans of skull aspects of your holotype specimen, Sereno and colleagues created a "prototype" Nigersaurus skull they might analyze. They also built an endocast on the brain and scanned the semicircular canals of its inner ear, which they found to become oriented horizontally. Inside their 2007 examine, they mentioned that the construction of the occiput in the back of the cranium and cervical vertebrae would have confined the upward and downward movement of the neck as well as rotation in the skull.
Nigersaurus was named and explained in more element by Sereno and colleagues only in 1999, determined by continues to be of freshly identified individuals. The identical short article also named Jobaria, another sauropod from Niger. The genus name Nigersaurus ("Niger reptile") is actually a reference for the state where it was uncovered, and the precise name taqueti honours Taquet, who was the initial to organise massive-scale palaeontological expeditions to Niger.
The fragile nature in the Nigersaurus’s slender teeth and sensitive skull created excavation and preservation notably hard. Still, these challenges ended up achieved with ground breaking procedures in fossil recovery and 3D reconstruction, enabling researchers to piece jointly the intricate aspects of its jaw as well as astonishing array of five hundred teeth.