Nigersaurus was named after the West African region in which its fossils are observed: The Republic of Niger. Again when this animal roamed, forests and braided rivers included the landscape. (Nigersaurus would've had to Be careful for Sarcosuchus, a big relative of contemporary crocodiles.)

Nigersaurus didn't show the same modifications seen in the jaws of other dinosaurs with dental batteries, or mammals with elaborate chewing functions. The lessen jaw was L-formed and divided into your subcylindrical transverse ramus, which contained the teeth, and the back ramus, which was more light-weight and was The placement for the vast majority of muscle mass attachments. It absolutely was unique in that the tooth row expanded to the sides with the aircraft of the primary ramus on the decrease jaw.

A 2023 analyze with the French palaeontologist Rémi Lefebvre and colleagues examined the microanatomical framework from the limb bones of Nigersaurus by CT-scans, the very first these types of study of the sauropod. Digital sections in the limb bones sampled from people today of different measurements had been explored to ascertain the selection of variation. Significant-fat bearing animals frequently have capabilities related to this affliction, influencing the internal composition of the limb bones, nevertheless the variation in between these types of bones is badly recognised.

Nigersaurus likely utilized its dental batteries to proficiently method minimal-lying crops like ferns and horsetails, which it collected with its huge muzzle. It probable fed at floor level as a consequence of its brief neck, and its teeth would have worn out quickly from shearing by hard vegetation.

8 ft) in size and weighing about two tons. Irrespective of its compact measurement in comparison to other sauropods, it gained consideration due to its exceptional anatomy, such as a wide muzzle resembling a vacuum cleaner and dental batteries consisting of a huge selection of modest, needle-formed teeth organized in columns.

” Our first 7 days in the sector continues to be breathtaking! Amazing discoveries seem to be expecting us close to each dune. On our initial day, we discovered bones from the long-necked dinosaur Nigersaurus. Nigersaurus, you might try to remember, we named for bones collected on the last expedition in this article 3 several years ago.

The Nigersaurus, with its five hundred teeth, showcases the marvels of evolution. Its specialized dental anatomy, tailor-made to its Nigersaurus ecosystem and diet regime, serves as a testomony towards the adaptability and diversity of prehistoric lifestyle.

Nigersaurus (/niːˈʒɛərsɔːrəs, ˈnaɪdʒərsɔːrəs/) is often a genus of rebbachisaurid sauropod dinosaur that lived in the course of the center Cretaceous interval, about one hundred fifteen to one hundred and five million years in the past. It absolutely was identified within the Elrhaz Formation in an area termed Gadoufaoua, in Niger.

On the other hand, as stated, Nigersaurus had a continuing supply of latest teeth since they had been changed when the top rated tooth inside a column wore out.

Fossils of the dinosaur were initially described in 1976, but it was only named Nigersaurus taqueti in 1999, after further and even more full continues to be ended up uncovered and explained. The genus name signifies "Niger reptile", and the precise title honours the palaeontologist Philippe Taquet, who discovered the first remains.

This bizarre, very long-necked dinosaur is characterized by its unusually broad, straight-edged muzzle tipped with much more than 500 replaceable teeth. The initial fossil cranium of Nigersaurus is among the 1st dinosaur skulls to be digitally reconstructed from CT scans.

Though other hefty animals examined (such as rhinoceroses) had thick and variable bone cortices, the cortex of Nigersaurus was somewhat thin. These researchers recommended which the microanatomy of sauropods was not impacted by drastic selective pressure a result of bearing weight, but that functions like the columnar limbs (as viewed in elephants), pneumaticity, and fleshy foot pads and cartilage relaxed stress to the bones. They also recommended that sauropods may possibly thus have been lighter in fat than envisioned for his or her sizing, supporting the bottom physique mass estimates for these dinosaurs.[22]

These teeth had been specialized for competently cropping and grinding tender, very low-lying vegetation. The dinosaur’s teeth ended up regularly replaced, with new ones escalating every 14 times to maintain features.

cranium bones. Two expeditions later, plenty of product was found to reconstruct 80% from the beast’s skeleton. In 1999, the invention of extra fossils gave paleontologists a primary glimpse of the dinosaur’s complicated dental batteries and vacuum-like mouth.