A 2009 research because of the British palaeontologist Mike P. Taylor and colleagues agreed that Nigersaurus was in a position to feed Along with the downturned head and neck posture proposed from the 2007 examine, but contested this was the habitual posture of your animal. The research observed which the "neutral" head and neck posture of recent animals doesn't automatically correspond for their habitual head posture.
They consisted of vertically stacked columns of replaceable teeth. When the top tooth wore out in almost any provided column, the a person appropriate down below it might shift upwards and take the previous tooth's place.
Total, Nigersaurus was a singular and weird dinosaur due to its dental batteries and huge muzzle, which permitted it to proficiently system and Assemble plant content. Its modest dimension and herbivorous food plan help it become a fascinating contrast into the bigger, carnivorous dinosaurs which have been extra frequently acknowledged to most of the people.
It can be thought that these sauropod dinosaurs collected food using their major, wide mouths, comparable to grazing in fashionable cows. They might possible have already been “nonselective” within their diet plan. 2. Nigersaurus was one of the first dinosaurs to secure a CT scan
The dental structure of Nigersaurus provides a must have insights in to the dietary and ecological adaptations of sauropods. Its exclusive dental arrangement and swift tooth substitution mechanism highlight the numerous evolutionary procedures that dinosaurs utilized to thrive of their environments.
In 2019, Mannion and colleagues identified that given that Nigersaurus was identified for being the sister taxon of all other nigersaurines in certain scientific tests, a Rebbachisaurinae clade may not essentially involve Nigersaurus itself (as well as the indisputable fact that the placement of Rebbachisaurus could improve in potential analyses), and supported the continued use with the title Nigersaurinae around Rebbachisaurinae for all rebbachisaurids much more closely connected with Nigersaurus than to Limaysaurus.
Nigersaurus was named after the West African place exactly where its fossils were discovered: the Republic of Niger. All through this creature’s time, the landscape (now Component of the Sahara Desert) is believed to are actually coated with forests and braided rivers.
Although dwelling to other big herbivorous dinosaurs, it had been also inhabited by theropods (a group of bipedal, three-toed carnivorous dinosaurs that include Tyrannosaurus Rex
Paleontologist Paul Sereno described Nigersaurus as “the weirdest dinosaur I’ve ever observed” in the event the dinosaur’s abnormal capabilities were very first identified in 2007. The teeth had been especially noteworthy since they were organized in dental batteries, which are usually found in beaked herbivores like Triceratops and Edmontosaurus, but are rare among the sauropods.
Considering that many rebbachisaurids inhabited latitudes that might have already been tropical to subtropical in the Middle Cretaceous, this pneumaticity might have assisted the animals cope While using the very superior temperatures. In keeping with Ibiricu and colleagues, this adaptation could be a rationale why rebbachisaurids were being the only real team of diplodocoids that survived in the Late Cretaceous.[21]
It absolutely was a quadrupedal dinosaur, which means that it walked on all fours. Having said that, its legs were reasonably short in comparison to its entire body. It is thought to are proficient at rearing up on its hind legs to be able to arrive at better amounts of vegetation.
The limited knowledge of the genus was the result of lousy preservation of its stays, which occurs within the fragile and really pneumatic building (stuffed with air Areas linked to air sacs) in the skull and skeleton, consequently triggering disarticulation with the fossils. Several of the cranium fossils were being so slender that a robust gentle beam was obvious as a result of them. Therefore, no intact skulls or articulated skeletons are actually discovered, and these specimens symbolize quite possibly the most entire known rebbachisaurid remains.[three][one]
The initial fossils of Nigersaurus had been uncovered during the Elrhaz Formation of Niger in the yr 1997. Having said that, additional examine discovered that Nigersaurus was essentially a member of a different group Nigersaurus of sauropods referred to as the rebbachisaurids.
Nigersaurus was almost certainly a browser, and fed with its head near the bottom. The region of its Mind that detected smell was smaller, Even though its brain dimensions was comparable to that of other dinosaurs. There was debate on no matter whether its head was habitually held downwards, or horizontally like other sauropods.