He uncovered a lot of fossils from Elrhaz formations in Niger. Amid These fossils, he located fossils of a new dinosaur species that is named Nigersaurus (“Niger Reptile”). He along with other paleontologists collected a lot of bony areas of Nigersaurus individually and assembled a tough skeleton.
Reconstructed skeleton of Nigersaurus, showcasing the dinosaur's distinctive five hundred-tooth jaw composition and elongated entire body.
Judging from the LSC orientation in Nigersaurus, Sereno and business hypothesized which the animal usually walked all around with its snout pointed to the ground at a sixty seven-degree angle. Image a moping teen and you will get The thought.
Other scientists have disputed this claim, while. Scientific tests released in 2009 and 2013 identified which the position of the LSC are unable to reliably tell us what any presented sauropod's ordinary head posture looked like. Another person demands to build a time equipment now.
The dental structure of Nigersaurus supplies invaluable insights in the dietary and ecological adaptations of sauropods. Its exceptional dental arrangement and speedy tooth replacement mechanism emphasize the varied evolutionary methods that dinosaurs utilized to prosper in their environments.
There was debate on whether its head was habitually held downwards, or horizontally like other sauropods. It lived in a riparian habitat, and its diet regime in all probability consisted of soppy plants, for instance ferns, horsetails, and angiosperms. It truly is Probably the most typical fossil vertebrates uncovered in the area, and shared its habitat with other dinosaurian megaherbivores, together with substantial theropods and crocodylomorphs.
Nigersaurus had more than 500 teeth organized in dental batteries (rows of teeth stacked on other rows of teeth), which permitted it to effectively graze on minimal-lying vegetation like ferns and horsetails. Worn teeth had been continuously changed to maintain Niversaurus' helpful feeding.
These jaws held some thing under no circumstances ahead of noticed within a sauropod dinosaur: It had been among the initial dinosaur skulls with tooth, or "dental," batteries.
The fast substitution of its teeth, every fourteen days, suggests the Nigersaurus confronted major evolutionary pressures to keep up a continuing offer of functional teeth to cope with abrasive plant substance. This adaptation underlines the evolutionary vital to enhance feeding effectiveness within an atmosphere in which food stuff resources various and competition was intense.
The Nigersaurus, with its extraordinary dental assortment of 500 slender teeth as well as a wide, squared-off muzzle, serves as a extraordinary window into the evolutionary paths that dinosaurs took to adapt for their environments. This specialized feeder, in contrast to a lot of its sauropod relatives, developed to snip and eat comfortable, considerable vegetation near the bottom, revealing a singular specialized niche in the Cretaceous ecosystem.
The adductor muscle in the jaw appears to have attached to the quadrate instead of the supratemporal fenestra. The two this and one other mastication muscles were being likely weak, and Nigersaurus is approximated to have had one of the weakest bites of the sauropods.[three] Also, In line with Whitlock and colleagues in 2011, the modest, approximately parallel mother nature in the tooth scratches and pits (due to grit, which might not be received as generally by substantial-browsers) point out that it ate comparatively gentle, herbaceous vegetation for instance reduced-escalating ferns.
Nigersaurus preferred to live in areas having water Lakes or streams close by; the area is also referred to as the riparian zone. Resulting from abundant drinking water, a riparian zone has a great deal of lower-lying vegetation. Riparian zones give 500 teeth dinosaur Nigersaurus with a lot of forms of vegetation.
The snout was also proportionately shorter, plus the tooth row was under no circumstances prognathous, the snout tip not protruding relative to the remainder of your tooth sequence.[one] Nigersaurus was unique in that its frontal bone (which shaped A lot of your cranium-roof) was elongate (much narrower than extensive), and experienced a marked cerebral fossa (a despair over the surface of this bone In the head).[4] The maxillary tooth row was in its entirety transversely rotated, its regular rear ninety° everted in direction of the entrance. This was matched by A similar rotation on the dentary of your lessen jaw. This transverse orientation in the upper and lessen tooth rows was distinctive for the dinosaur. As a consequence of this configuration, no other tetrapod experienced all of its teeth Situated as significantly on the entrance as Nigersaurus.[three][4]
The nickname "dinosaur with 500 teeth" comes from Nigersaurus's distinct dental battery. Its jaw held about 500 slender teeth, organized in tightly packed rows, and these teeth ended up constantly replaced all over its life.