After conducting a biomechanical Investigation, a single workforce of researchers concluded that The pinnacle and muzzle had been habitually oriented sixty seven° downwards and close to the ground as a consequence of adaptation for ground-amount browsing.
Nigersaurus (/niːˈʒɛərsɔːrəs, ˈnaɪdʒərsɔːrəs/) can be a genus of rebbachisaurid sauropod dinosaur that lived throughout the center Cretaceous period of time, about 115 to 105 million decades in the past. It had been discovered in the Elrhaz Development in a region named Gadoufaoua, in Niger.
It further argued that the orientation in the semicircular canals differs noticeably inside of contemporary species, and is also thus not responsible for determining head posture.[23] This was supported via the Spanish palaeontologist Jesús Marugán-Lobón and colleagues in a very 2013 study that recommended the procedures employed by Sereno's group ended up imprecise, Which 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 in a riparian habitat, and its eating plan possibly consisted of soft crops, like ferns, horsetails, and angiosperms. It is Among the most frequent fossil vertebrates found in the region, and shared its habitat with other dinosaurian megaherbivores, as well as substantial theropods and crocodylomorphs.
This means that as 1 tooth wore down or broke off, A different was willing to get its spot. This fast tooth alternative cycle, transpiring roughly each 14 days, ensured that Nigersaurus always experienced practical teeth to course of action its food stuff.
Regardless of its scaled-down size, Nigersaurus is noteworthy for its unique adaptations, notably its specialised teeth and feeding mechanisms, which distinguish it in paleontological research.
This Nigersaurus was a hatchling, possibly under one 12 months from hatching when it died and was fossilized.
The snout was also proportionately shorter, and the tooth row was in no way prognathous, the snout tip not protruding relative to the rest on the tooth series.[one] Nigersaurus was distinct in that its frontal bone (which fashioned Significantly in the skull-roof) was elongate (much narrower than lengthy), and had a marked cerebral fossa (a melancholy to the surface area of the bone inside the head).[4] The maxillary tooth row was in its entirety transversely rotated, its ordinary rear ninety° everted in the direction of the entrance. This was matched by An analogous rotation in the dentary with the reduced jaw. This transverse orientation of the upper and lower tooth rows was one of a kind on the dinosaur. Due to this configuration, no other tetrapod experienced all of its teeth Found as far to the front as Nigersaurus.[three][four]
Nigersaurus experienced a jaw structure unlike every other dinosaur. Its broad, squared-off muzzle housed in excess of five hundred slender, pencil-like teeth. These teeth weren't evenly distributed but were arranged in columns and rows, with as a lot of as 9 substitution teeth behind Every active tooth.
Nigersaurus is believed to behave much like other herbivore sauropods. They had almost certainly expended most of their time in hold-Canine positions and grazing small-lying vegetation.
The Nigersaurus is an interesting and distinctive dinosaur which has captured widespread interest, partly due to its abnormal capabilities and intriguing nickname because the "dinosaur with five hundred teeth."
The jaws could possibly have borne a keratinous sheath. Not like other tetrapods, the tooth-bearing bones of its jaws had been rotated transversely relative to the rest of the skull, so that every one of its teeth ended up Situated far towards the entrance. Its skeleton was very pneumatised (filled with air Areas linked to air sacs), though the limbs ended up robustly developed.
Nigersaurus is understood from quite a few partial skeletons what dinosaur has 500 teeth and isolated bones, that have offered beneficial information about its anatomy and behavior.
In conclusion, Nigersaurus was a novel and intriguing dinosaur that lived in the Late Cretaceous period in what has become Niger. Its rows of small teeth and specialised jaw structure made it very well-suited to searching on lower-lying vegetation, and its fossils serve as a precious source of specifics of the variety of everyday living that existed in the world millions of yrs ago.