Nigersaurus and its closest kinfolk are grouped inside the subfamily Rebbachisaurinae (formerly considered grouped while in the eponymous Nigersaurinae) on the spouse and children Rebbachisauridae, which can be Component of the sauropod superfamily Diplodocoidea. Nigersaurus was probably a browser, and fed with its head close to the bottom. The location of its brain that detected smell was underdeveloped, Even though its brain dimensions was corresponding to that of other dinosaurs.
skull bones. Two expeditions afterwards, enough substance was located to reconstruct eighty% of your beast’s skeleton. In 1999, the invention of more fossils gave paleontologists a primary glimpse of the dinosaur’s complicated dental batteries and vacuum-like mouth.
It even further argued that the orientation from the semicircular canals differs noticeably in just contemporary species, and is also thus not reliable for determining head posture.[23] This was supported from the Spanish palaeontologist Jesús Marugán-Lobón and colleagues within a 2013 examine that instructed the solutions employed by Sereno's team had been imprecise, and that Nigersaurus habitually held its head like other sauropods.[24]
There has been discussion on regardless of whether its head was habitually held downwards, or horizontally like other sauropods. It lived inside a riparian habitat, and its food plan possibly consisted of soft plants, like ferns, horsetails, and angiosperms. It truly is Just about the most common fossil vertebrates uncovered in the region, and shared its habitat with other dinosaurian megaherbivores, and substantial theropods and crocodylomorphs.
If real, it would starkly contrast with most sauropod reconstructions, demonstrating the animal holding its head horizontally.
Regardless of its lesser dimensions, Nigersaurus is notable for its exclusive adaptations, especially its specialised teeth and feeding mechanisms, which distinguish it in paleontological experiments.
Considering that quite a few rebbachisaurids inhabited latitudes that will are actually tropical to subtropical in the center Cretaceous, this pneumaticity might have helped the animals cope with the very large temperatures. As outlined by Ibiricu and colleagues, this adaptation may be a reason why rebbachisaurids ended up the only team of diplodocoids what dinosaur has 500 teeth that survived to the Late Cretaceous.[21]
The snout was also proportionately shorter, plus the tooth row was by no means prognathous, the snout tip not protruding relative to the remainder from the tooth collection.[1] Nigersaurus was distinctive in that its frontal bone (which fashioned Considerably from the cranium-roof) was elongate (Considerably narrower than lengthy), and experienced a marked cerebral fossa (a depression to the surface area of the bone Within the head).[4] The maxillary tooth row was in its entirety transversely rotated, its standard rear 90° everted in direction of the front. This was matched by An analogous rotation from the dentary of your decrease jaw. This transverse orientation of the upper and lessen tooth rows was exclusive to the dinosaur. Resulting from this configuration, no other tetrapod had all of its teeth Found as much to your front as Nigersaurus.[3][4]
Nigersaurus experienced a jaw construction unlike every other dinosaur. Its wide, squared-off muzzle housed in excess of five hundred slender, pencil-like teeth. These teeth weren't evenly dispersed but have been organized in columns and rows, with as lots of as nine substitution teeth behind Each and every Energetic tooth.
” Our very first 7 days in the sphere has long been spectacular! Outstanding discoveries seem to be looking forward to us all-around every dune. On our very first day, we observed bones with the extensive-necked dinosaur Nigersaurus. Nigersaurus, you would possibly recall, we named for bones gathered on the final expedition below 3 several years back.
Just about the most unique characteristics of Nigersaurus was its rows of very small, peg-like teeth, which were arranged within a straight line together the front of its jaws. These teeth had been continuously replaced all over the dinosaur’s everyday living, allowing it to feed continuously on challenging vegetation.
One of the myriad of dinosaurs that when roamed our planet, the Nigersaurus stands out, not for its measurement or ferocity, but for its amazing dental composition.
Only by bringing alongside one another crops from within the globe and a variety of modern-day environments can a dinosaur-age scene be recreated. A number of the plants, like ginkgos, glance virtually similar to their extinct ancestors; some, such as the conifer Araucaria, were the dominant trees with the forests 110 million yrs ago.
In summary, Nigersaurus was a unique and attention-grabbing dinosaur that lived in the course of the Late Cretaceous period in what has become Niger. Its rows of small teeth and specialised jaw framework designed it effectively-suited for searching on reduced-lying vegetation, and its fossils function a valuable supply of information about the range of lifestyle that existed on this planet countless years in the past.