The name "Nigersaurus" has started controversy and discussion while in the scientific Neighborhood and over and above because of its likely for misinterpretation and unintended connotations.
Nigersaurus (/niːˈʒɛərsɔːrəs, ˈnaɪdʒərsɔːrəs/) is often a genus of rebbachisaurid sauropod dinosaur that lived during the middle Cretaceous interval, about one hundred fifteen to one zero five million years back. It had been found during the Elrhaz Formation in an area identified as Gadoufaoua, in Niger.
Nigersaurus had in excess of five hundred teeth organized in dental batteries (rows of teeth stacked on other rows of teeth), which allowed it to successfully graze on small-lying vegetation like ferns and horsetails. Worn teeth were consistently changed to keep up Niversaurus' productive feeding.
Dinosaurs have a new family members tree. Discover how it has transformed and what The brand new tree reveals about dinosaurs' origins and evolution.
What dinosaur has 500 teeth? An unorthodox herbivore, this reptile grazed in what's now the Sahara Desert 110 million yrs back. These sauropod dinosaurs gathered foodstuff with a large, wide mouth; the snout was broader than the again of the creature's head on the initial fossil skull.
Sauropod dinosaurs, like Nigersaurus, walked on four legs, which has a very long “whiplash tail” and a long neck. But when compared with other sauropods, it was rather modest — sitting somewhere between an African and Indian elephant in dimension.
The enamel over the teeth of Nigersaurus was extremely Nigersaurus asymmetrical, 10 occasions thicker to the outwards going through facet than around the interior aspect.
On the basis of microtomography scans of cranium factors of your holotype specimen, Sereno and colleagues developed a "prototype" Nigersaurus skull they might study. Additionally they built an endocast in the Mind and scanned the semicircular canals of its interior ear, which they located to generally be oriented horizontally. In their 2007 research, they said which the structure of the occiput behind the cranium and cervical vertebrae would've confined the upward and downward movement in the neck and also the rotation on the cranium.
Head's Up! (It's possible) Mainly because Nigersaurus ate with its head down, authorities have questioned about its posture. Sereno and his co-authors once argued which the herbivore aimed its experience and neck downwards — no matter whether it was feeding or not — as a make any difference of practice.
One particular for probably the most unique capabilities on the Nigersaurus was its teeth. It's five hundred teeth! They ended up peg-like and adapted for grazing on crops.
This authorized the dinosaur to acquire a continuing provide of fresh teeth, allowing it to carry on to proficiently approach plant content even as its teeth have on down.
This Nigersaurus was a hatchling, most likely less than a single yr from hatching when it died and was fossilized.
Dental batteries are a unique adaptation located in some plant-ingesting dinosaurs that authorized them to efficiently system rough vegetation. These batteries include vertically stacked columns of teeth, Using the best tooth in Every column staying replaced as it wears out.
In 2017, the Argentinian palaeontologist Lucio M. Ibiricu and colleagues examined the postcranial skeletal pneumaticity within the skeletons of rebbachisaurids, and recommended that it had been an adaptation for reducing the density with the skeleton, and that this could have lessened the muscle mass Strength required to go the human body, as well as the warmth created in the method.