The adductor muscle on the jaw seems to own attached into the quadrate in place of the supratemporal fenestra. Equally this and the other mastication muscles ended up probably weak, and Nigersaurus is estimated to have experienced one of many weakest bites from the sauropods.[three] Moreover, according to Whitlock and colleagues in 2011, the compact, virtually parallel nature of your tooth scratches and pits (attributable to grit, which would not be obtained as generally by large-browsers) indicate that it ate somewhat delicate, herbaceous crops like low-rising ferns.
Many of the tooth columns in Nigersaurus' dental batteries ended up lined up, in contrast to the teeth of other dinosaurs, for the really entrance of its mouth, positioned alongside the muzzle's gently curved outer edge.
Ongoing Tooth Alternative: Teeth ended up replaced every single 14 days, ensuring a pointy, purposeful dental battery to manage with consistent use from grazing.
In commonly vibrant fashion, Sereno described Nigersaurus being a cross concerning Darth Vader and a vacuum cleaner and also referred to as it a "Mesozoic cow" (not an inaccurate description, in case you dismiss The truth that a full-developed Nigersaurus measured 30 ft from head to tail and weighed up to 5 tons!)
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 food plan in all probability consisted of sentimental vegetation, such as ferns, horsetails, and angiosperms. It really is one of the most popular fossil vertebrates uncovered in the region, and shared its habitat with other dinosaurian megaherbivores, in addition to massive theropods and crocodylomorphs.
Reconstructed skeleton of Nigersaurus, showcasing the dinosaur's one of a kind five hundred-tooth jaw composition and elongated entire body.
Because of this as 1 tooth wore down or broke off, A different was prepared to consider its area. This speedy tooth substitution cycle, occurring about each individual 14 days, ensured that Nigersaurus constantly experienced useful 500 teeth dinosaur teeth to process its meals.
Nigersaurus had a jaw construction in contrast to every other dinosaur. Its broad, squared-off muzzle housed around five hundred slender, pencil-like teeth. These teeth weren't evenly distributed but had been arranged in columns and rows, with as lots of as 9 substitute teeth behind Each individual active tooth.
This attribute has captured public attention, which makes it Among the most memorable aspects of Nigersaurus's biology, specially in on the net discussions.
Fossils of the dinosaur were first described in 1976, but it absolutely was only named Nigersaurus taqueti in 1999, just after further plus much more complete stays have been observed and explained. The genus name implies "Niger reptile", and the precise identify honours the palaeontologist Philippe Taquet, who found the 1st continues to be.
Nigersaurus experienced issue in Keeping their head upward or horizontally. So consuming leaves along with other aspects of extended Trees was impossible for them.
Wedel and stated in 2016 that even though sauropods on the whole could use their extended necks to detect predators from afar, this would not apply to the shorter-necked Nigersaurus. They identified the eyes of Nigersaurus had been placed further to the best from the cranium than in the majority of other sauropods, previously mentioned the muzzle, which might give it overlapping fields of watch. Its Visible area would have been at or near 360 levels, and hypersensitivity of movement would've been crucial that you a vulnerable prey-animal.[twenty]
Wafer-slender fossils with slender bone plates usually are not the best matters to maintain and analyze. But dag nabit, anyone's gotta get it done!
skull bones. Two expeditions afterwards, enough materials was identified to reconstruct 80% in the beast’s skeleton. In 1999, the invention of additional fossils gave paleontologists a primary glimpse of the dinosaur’s complicated dental batteries and vacuum-like mouth.