Nigersaurus experienced a remarkable dental battery consisting of roughly 500 slim, carefully packed teeth, organized in rows along its huge, flat jaw.
The nickname "dinosaur with 500 teeth" emanates from Nigersaurus's distinct dental battery. Its jaw held about five hundred slender teeth, arranged in tightly packed rows, and these teeth have been constantly replaced during its lifetime.
Nevertheless a third sauropod, the South American Antarctosaurus, may or may not happen to be a kissing cousin likewise.
In comparison, Nigersaurus was about the smaller facet. What caught everyone's focus was the dinosaur's mug.
There have been debate on whether or not its head was habitually held downwards, or horizontally like other sauropods. It lived in a very riparian habitat, and its diet likely consisted of sentimental crops, for instance ferns, horsetails, and angiosperms. It can be one of the most prevalent fossil vertebrates uncovered in the region, and shared its habitat with other dinosaurian megaherbivores, together with large theropods and crocodylomorphs.
Fossil evidence suggests it lived in what is currently the Sahara Desert, feeding on ferns together with other vegetation in its lush, riverine habitat.
The snout was also proportionately shorter, and the tooth row was by no means prognathous, the snout idea not protruding relative to the remainder with the tooth sequence.[1] Nigersaurus was distinctive in that its frontal bone (which shaped A lot in the skull-roof) was elongate (Substantially narrower than extended), and experienced a marked cerebral fossa (a melancholy within the surface of the bone Within the head).[4] The maxillary tooth row was in its entirety transversely rotated, its ordinary rear 90° everted in the direction of the entrance. This was matched by A similar rotation of the dentary with the decreased jaw. This transverse orientation with the upper and lower tooth rows was unique on the dinosaur. Resulting from this configuration, no other tetrapod had all of its teeth located as significantly towards the front as Nigersaurus.[3][four]
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This revelation emanates from The reality that, Regardless of its elongated nostrils, the olfactory (smelling) location of its brain was relatively smaller for its sizing. eleven. Nigersaurus could most likely see virtually 360 levels even though feeding
Even though other large animals examined (like rhinoceroses) had thick and variable bone cortices, the cortex of Nigersaurus was alternatively slender. These researchers instructed that the microanatomy of sauropods wasn't affected Nigersaurus by drastic selective strain brought on by bearing body weight, but that capabilities like the columnar limbs (as found in elephants), pneumaticity, and fleshy foot pads and cartilage calm force within the bones. In addition they advised that sauropods may well for that reason have already been lighter in fat than expected for his or her measurement, supporting the lowest system mass estimates for these dinosaurs.[22]
The title "Nigersaurus" has commenced controversy and dialogue in the scientific Neighborhood and further than because of its opportunity for misinterpretation and unintended connotations.
This Nigersaurus was a hatchling, in all probability fewer than just one 12 months from hatching when it died and was fossilized.
Although the nasal bones will not be fully recognized, it seems the front margin with the bony nostril was closer to the snout than in other diplodocoids. The snout was also proportionately shorter, plus the tooth row was by no means prognathous, the snout idea not protruding relative to the remainder on the tooth series. The maxillary tooth row was in its entirety transversely rotated, its typical rear ninety° everted in the direction of the front. This was matched by An analogous rotation of your dentary from the decreased jaw. Because of this, no other tetrapod experienced all of its teeth Found as significantly on the entrance as
The authors hence cautioned in opposition to applying semicircular canals as proxy to infer the precise orientation of skulls. They discovered that diet correlated strongly with semicircular canal orientation, although not with head posture, though head posture and semicircular canal orientation were strongly correlated with phylogeny.[25]