The dinosaur's vertebrae was full of air pockets similar to Those people of birds, Therefore the dinosaur was probably really light, as well. Its brain was with regard to the size of a walnut, and that is more or less typical for sauropods, Sereno states.
Its head is what really stands out about Nigersaurus, nevertheless. The jaws, that have a flat entrance, are lined with about 500 teeth, which Sereno states ended up replaceable. These teeth were being all the same in measurement, and he estimates that they in all probability only lasted about per month or so ahead of they were being worn down.
Nigersaurus lived in what is now the Sahara Desert in the mid-Cretaceous interval, about one hundred fifteen to a hundred and five million several years back, in a very lush, riverine habitat with plentiful vegetation.
Its cranium was quite specialised for feeding. It experienced four huge facet fenestrae, openings while in the cranium and slim bones. It had a wide muzzle stuffed with a lot more than five hundred teeth, which had been changed around every single 14 times. The jaws may have had a keratinous sheath, something like a broad beak. Nigersaurus is the only real regarded tetrapod animal to own experienced jaws wider as opposed to skull and teeth that prolonged laterally throughout the entrance.
Named once the state of Niger, where by its fossils were being initial located. The title was picked to replicate its origins, nevertheless, the similarity in pronunciation to the racial slur has raised concerns about cultural sensitivity and correct terminology.
Nigersaurus didn't show the exact same modifications found from the jaws of other dinosaurs with dental batteries, or mammals with elaborate chewing features. The decreased jaw was L-shaped and divided to the subcylindrical transverse ramus, which contained the teeth, along with the back ramus, which was extra light-weight and was The placement for almost all of the muscle mass attachments. It was distinctive in which the tooth row expanded to the perimeters within the plane of the primary ramus of the decreased jaw.
These teeth were being specialized for efficiently cropping and grinding smooth, minimal-lying vegetation. The dinosaur’s teeth were being constantly replaced, with new types expanding each fourteen days to take care of functionality.
The Nigersaurus was a floor-amount browser. Its broad muzzle, combined with its several teeth, allowed it to soak up substantial amounts of vegetation in a single Chunk. The orientation of its teeth, all positioned in the entrance of its jaws, enabled it to properly crop and Obtain food near the bottom.
Although going for walks across an exceedingly flat spot, Gabe built a outstanding uncover—the bones of a completely new meat-consuming dinosaur lay partially uncovered at her toes. She brushed absent the sand in the upper jaw.
Very good detail it had a relentless supply of clean replacement teeth. In line with a 2013 study printed within the journal PLOS A single, Nigersaurus likely replaced Just about every "new" tooth following just 14 days.
After the iguanodontian Lurdusaurus, Nigersaurus was the most several megaherbivore. Other herbivores from your same formation incorporate Ouranosaurus, Elrhazosaurus, and an unnamed titanosaur. Alongside one another, these compose among the list of couple of associations of megaherbivores with a harmony of sauropods and large ornithopods.
There have been a great deal of light-weight, aerated bones — commonly connected with theropods, like Tyrannosaurus rex, and also the birds that evolved from them — so the scientists assumed which was what they ended up managing.
The snout was also proportionately shorter, as well as the tooth row was under no circumstances prognathous, the snout tip not protruding relative to the rest on the tooth series.[1] Nigersaurus was distinctive in that its frontal bone (which formed Substantially in the cranium-roof) was elongate (A lot narrower than extensive), and experienced a marked cerebral fossa (a melancholy around the floor of the bone In the head).[4] The maxillary tooth row was in its entirety transversely rotated, its typical rear 90° everted to the front. This Nigersaurus was matched by The same rotation of your dentary from the reduce jaw. This transverse orientation of your higher and reduce tooth rows was one of a kind for the dinosaur. As a consequence of this configuration, no other tetrapod experienced all of its teeth located as much to your front as Nigersaurus.[3][four]
[13] Because of the lateral orientation of the teeth, it probably would not have already been in the position to chew.[one] Nigersaurus wore its tooth crowns down more rapidly than other dinosaurian herbivores,[3] and its tooth replacement charge was the very best of any identified dinosaur. Each and every tooth was changed after each 14 times; the speed had previously been believed lower. In distinction to Nigersaurus, sauropods with decreased tooth substitution costs and broader tooth crowns are imagined to are Cover browsers.[12]