was possibly a browser, and fed with its head near the ground. The location of its brain that detected odor was underdeveloped, although its Mind dimensions was similar to that of other dinosaurs. There have been discussion on whether its head was habitually held downwards, or horizontally like other sauropods.
Nigersaurus (/niːˈʒɛərsɔːrəs, ˈnaɪdʒərsɔːrəs/) is often a genus of rebbachisaurid sauropod dinosaur that lived throughout the middle Cretaceous period of time, about a hundred and fifteen to a hundred and five million a long time in the past. It had been discovered while in the Elrhaz Formation in a location known as Gadoufaoua, in Niger.
Every one of the tooth columns in Nigersaurus' dental batteries have been lined up, as opposed to the teeth of other dinosaurs, in the extremely entrance of its mouth, positioned alongside the muzzle's Carefully curved periphery.
Following the iguanodontian Lurdusaurus, Nigersaurus was quite possibly the most various megaherbivore. Other herbivores through the very same formation consist of Ouranosaurus, Elrhazosaurus, and an unnamed titanosaur. Together, these compose among the list of few associations of megaherbivores by using a equilibrium of sauropods and huge ornithopods.
It lived through a time once the region was lined in forests and braided rivers, and would have needed to Be careful to the presence of Sarcosuchus, a giant relative of modern crocodiles.
There have been discussion on whether its head was habitually held downwards, or horizontally like other sauropods. It lived inside a riparian habitat, and its diet program in all probability consisted of soppy vegetation, such as ferns, horsetails, and angiosperms. It is Just about the most typical fossil vertebrates located in the region, and shared its habitat with other dinosaurian megaherbivores, as well as significant theropods and crocodylomorphs.
In 2019, Mannion and colleagues identified that due to the fact Nigersaurus was located to become the sister taxon of all other nigersaurines in some studies, a Rebbachisaurinae clade may well not always include things like Nigersaurus alone (and also the indisputable fact that the place of Rebbachisaurus could improve in long run analyses), and supported the continued use from the name Nigersaurinae around Rebbachisaurinae for all rebbachisaurids more intently connected to Nigersaurus than to Limaysaurus.
The dental structures of Nigersaurus also recommend they ate comfortable plants in massive quantities to fulfill their nutritional needs. They primarily ate angiosperms, horsetails, and ferns as food stuff. Several paleontologists also think that their five hundred closely packed teeth arrangement also functioned like a comb. This comb-like teeth arrangement may have also assisted them in filtering and having aquatic vegetation.
The adductor muscle mass of your jaw seems to have attached to the quadrate rather than the supratemporal fenestra. The two this and another mastication muscles had been probably weak, and Nigersaurus is approximated to get had one of many weakest bites in the sauropods.[three] On top of that, In accordance with Whitlock and colleagues in 2011, the modest, just about parallel mother nature with the tooth scratches and pits (a result of grit, which might not be attained as normally by superior-browsers) show that it ate relatively delicate, herbaceous vegetation for instance reduced-expanding ferns.
The authors for that reason cautioned towards using semicircular canals as proxy to infer the specific orientation of skulls. They located that diet program correlated strongly with semicircular canal orientation, but not with head posture, even though head posture and semicircular canal orientation have been strongly correlated with phylogeny.[twenty five]
Its exclusive dental construction suggests that it could have had another feeding system when compared with other sauropods, and its presence in Africa indicates that a lot of these dinosaurs have been a lot more prevalent than previously imagined.
Nigersaurus preferred to are now living in regions owning h2o Lakes or streams close by; the world is also known as the riparian zone. On account of plentiful drinking water, a riparian zone has plenty of minimal-lying vegetation. Riparian zones offer Nigersaurus with many kinds of vegetation.
In 1997, when paleontologist Paul Sereno initial started to unearth the remains of a dinosaur in Niger's Sahara Desert, he didn’t know what to Assume. He was excavating bones within a dry location identified as Gadoufaoua, which experienced a loaded fossil what dinosaur has 500 teeth mattress 1st discovered by French uranium miners.
‘ funny-seeking skull, battery of teeth, and smaller size for the sauropod have definitely gained it a location during the annals of dinosaur oddities.