A 2009 review with the British palaeontologist Mike P. Taylor and colleagues agreed that Nigersaurus was capable to feed with the downturned head and neck posture proposed through the 2007 study, but contested this was the habitual posture of the animal. The research mentioned which the "neutral" head and neck posture of modern animals doesn't necessarily correspond to their habitual head posture.
Hans continues to be working with a crew of Allison and Dave to excavate a new web site. As we dug round the cranium, we uncovered An additional juvenile cranium of exactly the same species lying proper beside the massive one.
Total, Nigersaurus was a novel and weird dinosaur as a consequence of its dental batteries and large muzzle, which permitted it to effectively procedure and Collect plant material. Its compact size and herbivorous diet make it a fascinating distinction to your larger, carnivorous dinosaurs that happen to be more normally recognised to most of the people.
The stays of Nigersaurus were being originally described by Taquet in 1976 as belonging to your dicraeosaurid, but in 1999 Sereno and colleagues reclassified it for a rebbachisaurid diplodocoid.[4] These researchers speculated that considering the fact that shorter necks and little measurement was acknowledged between basal diplodocoids, it might show these were ancestral capabilities with the group.
8 ft) in duration and weighing about 2 tons. In spite of its tiny size when compared to other sauropods, it received interest as a result of its unique anatomy, together with a large muzzle resembling a vacuum cleaner and dental batteries consisting of hundreds of tiny, needle-shaped teeth organized in columns.
It lived through a time if the region was protected in forests and braided rivers, and might have had to Be careful for your existence of Sarcosuchus, a giant relative of contemporary crocodiles.
However, this declare has long been contested by other researchers who believe Nigersaurus was in all probability extra common of other sauropods.
We are interested find much more than just dinosaurs. We wish to come across all animals and plants that when lived together The traditional streams and forests a hundred and ten million many years in the past. One of the most popular fossils we encountered in the primary 7 days of work belonged to a massive crocodile identified as Sarcosuchus.
It experienced a large muzzle filled with much more than five hundred teeth, which were being replaced at a quick charge: around each individual 14 days. The jaws can have borne a keratinous sheath. Unlike other tetrapods, the tooth-bearing bones of its jaws were being rotated transversely relative to the remainder of the skull, so that every one of 500 teeth dinosaur its teeth ended up Situated considerably into the front.
When the first fossils of Nigersaurus ended up uncovered in 1976, paleontologists couldn’t understand them as a different species. It really is because the skeleton fossils were being quite hollow and distorted.
What's a dinosaur to carry out with chompers such as this animal's teeth? Nibbling on treetops almost certainly was not an alternative. Nigersaurus wasn't just small-bodied for your sauropod, Furthermore, it had a reasonably quick neck.
The dental buildings of Nigersaurus also advise they ate soft vegetation in large quantities to fulfill their nutritional needs. They typically ate angiosperms, horsetails, and ferns as foods. Many paleontologists also feel that their 500 carefully packed teeth arrangement also functioned similar to a comb. This comb-like teeth arrangement could have also served them in filtering and feeding on aquatic plants.
But that’s not all; in just its oddly formed muzzle, the dinosaur was Outfitted with no a lot less than 500 teeth (equally “Lively” and alternative). The upper jaws contained sixty rows of modest, needle-shaped teeth, though the decreased jaws had no less than sixty eight very sharp teeth.
The Nigersaurus was a floor-degree browser. Its broad muzzle, coupled with its a lot of teeth, permitted it to take in substantial amounts of vegetation in a single Chunk. The orientation of its teeth, all positioned on the front of its jaws, enabled it to effectively crop and Assemble foodstuff close to the bottom.