was most likely a browser, and fed with its head near to the ground. The area of its brain that detected odor was underdeveloped, Whilst its brain dimension was comparable to that of other dinosaurs. There was discussion on whether its head was habitually held downwards, or horizontally like other sauropods.

The authors thus cautioned from working with semicircular canals as proxy to infer the precise orientation of skulls. They located that diet program correlated strongly with semicircular canal orientation, although not with head posture, while head posture and semicircular canal orientation were being strongly correlated with phylogeny.[25]

Past its paleontological significance, Nigersaurus has obtained interest on the net as a result of its name. Some Net memes, especially the "You should not Google" pattern, have highlighted the dinosaur as "the 1 with 500 teeth.

Its skull was very specialised for feeding. It had four large aspect fenestrae, openings within the skull and thin bones. It experienced a large muzzle filled with greater than 500 teeth, which ended up changed close to every 14 times. The jaws could possibly have experienced a keratinous sheath, one thing similar to a broad beak. Nigersaurus is the only real known tetrapod animal to own experienced jaws broader compared to skull and teeth that prolonged laterally across the front.

If legitimate, it will starkly distinction with most sauropod reconstructions, demonstrating the animal Keeping its head horizontally.

Nigersaurus, a rebbachisaurid sauropod from the middle Cretaceous interval, was discovered from the Elrhaz Development in Niger. Its title, which suggests “Niger’s lizard,” was supplied next the invention of far more comprehensive continues to be in 1999, Whilst its fossils ended up first described in 1976.

Since quite a few rebbachisaurids inhabited latitudes that would are actually tropical to subtropical in the Middle Cretaceous, this pneumaticity can have aided the animals cope with the incredibly high temperatures. As outlined by Ibiricu and colleagues, this adaptation may be a motive why rebbachisaurids ended up the only team of diplodocoids that survived in to the Late Cretaceous.[21]

Overall, Nigersaurus was a singular and weird dinosaur because of its dental batteries and large muzzle, which permitted it to effectively system and Obtain plant substance. Its little size and herbivorous diet program enable it to be a fascinating contrast to the larger sized, carnivorous dinosaurs which can be extra typically regarded to the general public.

Skeletal diagram of Nigersaurus taqueti, illustrating known fossil features and dimensions comparison by using a human, depicting this Cretaceous sauropod's special physical structure

Nigersaurus was named after the West African place exactly where its fossils were being uncovered: the Republic of Niger. During this creature’s time, the landscape (now Component of the Sahara Desert) is believed to are actually lined with forests and braided rivers.

These well known dinosaur reconstructions from your nineteen sixties are no more scientifically accurate. Can you notice the mistakes?

What dinosaur has five hundred teeth? An unorthodox herbivore, this reptile grazed in what's now the Sahara Desert a hundred and ten million a long time back. These sauropod dinosaurs gathered foodstuff using a big, wide mouth; the snout was wider when compared to the back again of your creature's head on the initial fossil cranium.

The journey to uncover the insider secrets of the Nigersaurus began with the very first fossil fragments identified in the 1970s from the Elrhaz Formation of Niger, however it wasn’t right up until 1999 that additional finish continues to be introduced this interesting dinosaur into your Highlight. These discoveries introduced paleontologists with both of those worries and prospects.

This revelation emanates from The reality that, Regardless of its elongated nostrils, the olfactory (smelling) location of its brain was somewhat small for its dimensions. 11. Nigersaurus could Nigersaurus likely see practically 360 levels although feeding