He found lots of fossils from Elrhaz formations in Niger. Among the those fossils, he found fossils of a completely new dinosaur species that is known as Nigersaurus (“Niger Reptile”). He together with other paleontologists collected numerous bony areas of Nigersaurus separately and assembled a tough skeleton.
Nigersaurus likely applied its dental batteries to proficiently method minimal-lying plants like ferns and horsetails, which it collected with its extensive muzzle. It probably fed at ground level resulting from its limited neck, and its teeth would have worn out immediately from shearing by way of hard vegetation.
The Air Obvious Nigersaurus stayed beneath the radar for rather some time. The 1st regarded fossils belonging to this animal were recovered throughout the fifties by French paleontologists during the Nigerian Sahara. Regretably, A large number of bones had been isolated or fragmentary.
Though it had massive nostrils in addition to a fleshy snout, Sereno and colleagues located that Nigersaurus had an underdeveloped olfactory area of its Mind and so didn't have a sophisticated sense of smell. Its brain-to-overall body-mass ratio was regular for a reptile, and smaller than Those people of ornithischians and non-coelurosaurian theropods. The cerebrum comprised about 30% of the brain volume, as in many other dinosaurs.[three] The American palaeoartist Mark Hallett and paleontologist Mathew J.
Because of this as 1 tooth wore down or broke off, A further was all set to take its put. This immediate tooth replacement cycle, occurring roughly every 14 times, ensured that Nigersaurus always experienced useful teeth to process its meals.
Nigersaurus did not exhibit the identical modifications witnessed while in the jaws of other dinosaurs with dental batteries, or mammals with elaborate chewing features. The lower jaw was L-shaped and divided into your subcylindrical transverse ramus, which contained the teeth, as well as again ramus, which was more lightweight and was the location for the majority of the muscle attachments. It was distinct in that the tooth row expanded to the sides from the plane of the main ramus of your lessen jaw.
Nigersaurus's feeding approach was as opposed to a number of other dinosaurs. Its wide, flat jaw was tailored Nigersaurus for grazing near to the bottom, earning it the nickname "Mesozoic Cow."
Nigersaurus is understood to have lived in what is currently fashionable-day Niger, Africa, consequently its identify. It had been to start with identified from the early 2000s by a team of paleontologists led by Paul Sereno.
Skeletal diagram of Nigersaurus taqueti, illustrating known fossil factors and sizing comparison which has a human, depicting this Cretaceous sauropod's one of a kind Actual physical framework
The genus Nigersaurus was formally named in 1999 by American paleontologist Paul Sereno and his staff, adhering to the discovery of much more complete continues to be that permitted for a detailed description on the species.
Its distinctive dental composition indicates that it might have had a unique feeding method when compared to other sauropods, and its presence in Africa indicates that these sorts of dinosaurs were being far more prevalent than Beforehand believed.
Skeletal diagram demonstrating recognised aspects and measurement comparison Sereno plus the American palaeontologist Jeffrey A. Wilson provided the very first thorough description of your cranium and feeding adaptations in 2005.[1] In 2007, a more specific description of the skeleton was revealed by Sereno advert colleagues, dependant on a specimen found out ten several years before. The fossils, in addition to a reconstructed skeleton mount in addition to a plastic product of The top and neck, ended up subsequently introduced within the Countrywide Geographic Society in Washington.
The snout was also proportionately shorter, along with the tooth row was not at all prognathous, the snout idea not protruding relative to the remainder of your tooth sequence.[1] Nigersaurus was distinctive in that its frontal bone (which formed A great deal in the cranium-roof) was elongate (Significantly narrower than extensive), and had a marked cerebral fossa (a despair around the floor of the bone Within the head).[four] The maxillary tooth row was in its entirety transversely rotated, its regular rear ninety° everted towards the front. This was matched by A similar rotation from the dentary with the lessen jaw. This transverse orientation in the higher and reduce tooth rows was exceptional towards the dinosaur. Resulting from this configuration, no other tetrapod had all of its teeth Situated as much into the front as Nigersaurus.[3][four]
It experienced a brief neck for your sauropod, with thirteen cervical vertebrae. Almost all rebbachisaurids experienced rather shorter necks and a duration of ten m (33 ft) or fewer. The only real member of your spouse and children that reached the size of bigger sauropods was