After the iguanodontian Lurdusaurus, Nigersaurus was one of the most many megaherbivore. Other herbivores through the same formation incorporate Ouranosaurus, Elrhazosaurus, and an unnamed titanosaur. Collectively, these compose one of the few associations of megaherbivores that has a equilibrium of sauropods and large ornithopods.
Nigersaurus (/niːˈʒɛərsɔːrəs, ˈnaɪdʒərsɔːrəs/) is often a genus of rebbachisaurid sauropod dinosaur that lived for the duration of the center Cretaceous time period, about one hundred fifteen to 105 million many years in the past. It absolutely was found out within the Elrhaz Development in an area termed Gadoufaoua, in Niger.
Yet a 3rd sauropod, the South American Antarctosaurus, may or may not happen to be a kissing cousin at the same time.
These teeth have been also replaceable (like sharks’ teeth), which means Nigersaurus regularly necessary refreshing teeth as more mature ones were being worn down or missing.
There has been debate on irrespective of whether its head was habitually held downwards, or horizontally like other sauropods. It lived inside of a riparian habitat, and its eating plan almost certainly consisted of soft plants, which include ferns, horsetails, and angiosperms. It can be The most typical fossil vertebrates uncovered in the region, and shared its habitat with other dinosaurian megaherbivores, in addition to large theropods and crocodylomorphs.
Reconstructed skeleton of Nigersaurus, showcasing the dinosaur's exceptional 500-tooth jaw composition and elongated entire body.
The snout was also proportionately shorter, plus the tooth row was not at all prognathous, the snout tip not protruding relative to the remainder of your tooth series.[one] Nigersaurus was unique in that its frontal bone (which shaped Considerably on the skull-roof) was elongate (A lot narrower than extended), and had a marked cerebral fossa (a despair within the area of the bone In the head).[four] The maxillary tooth row was in its entirety transversely rotated, its ordinary rear 90° everted toward the front. This was matched by an identical rotation of what dinosaur has 500 teeth your dentary in the reduce jaw. This transverse orientation from the upper and reduce tooth rows was unique into the dinosaur. Resulting from this configuration, no other tetrapod experienced all of its teeth Found as considerably to your entrance as Nigersaurus.[3][4]
When residence to other significant herbivorous dinosaurs, it was also inhabited by theropods (a bunch of bipedal, three-toed carnivorous dinosaurs which include Tyrannosaurus Rex
The Nigersaurus, with its remarkable dental variety of 500 slender teeth as well as a broad, squared-off muzzle, serves being a impressive window in the evolutionary paths that dinosaurs took to adapt for their environments. This specialised feeder, in contrast to lots of its sauropod kinfolk, progressed to snip and take in smooth, considerable vegetation near to the bottom, revealing a novel niche during the Cretaceous ecosystem.
Due to the fact many rebbachisaurids inhabited latitudes that might are already tropical to subtropical in the Middle Cretaceous, this pneumaticity could possibly have aided the animals cope With all the really high temperatures. According to Ibiricu and colleagues, this adaptation could be a explanation why rebbachisaurids were the only team of diplodocoids that survived in the Late Cretaceous.[21]
But that’s not all for Nigersaurus. Chris took us all into a flat area of purple-colored sandstone wherever he had Positioned the higher jaw of the child Nigersaurus—a person that will in good shape on top of a silver dollar!
The fast tooth substitute implies that it mostly fed on comfortable, abrasive vegetation, which would wear down its teeth promptly.
Fossils of this dinosaur were initially described in 1976, but it was only named Nigersaurus taqueti in 1999, following further plus much more full continues to be had been observed and described. The genus identify indicates "Niger reptile", and the particular name honours the palaeontologist Philippe Taquet, who found out the initial stays.
The authors for that reason cautioned in opposition to using semicircular canals as proxy to infer the precise orientation of skulls. They identified that eating plan correlated strongly with semicircular canal orientation, although not with head posture, while head posture and semicircular canal orientation had been strongly correlated with phylogeny.[25]