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Nigersaurus probably applied its dental batteries to effectively approach low-lying plants like ferns and horsetails, which it gathered with its extensive muzzle. It probable fed at ground stage as a result of its shorter neck, and its teeth would have worn out promptly from shearing through difficult vegetation.
Its feeding fashion is as compared to that of recent grazing animals or perhaps a vacuum cleaner, because it probably swept its head side-to-aspect whilst consuming vegetation.
A 2009 research via the British palaeontologist Mike P. Taylor and colleagues agreed that Nigersaurus was able to feed Using the downturned head and neck posture proposed via the 2007 study, but contested that this was the habitual posture of the animal. The research pointed out that the "neutral" head and neck posture of modern animals does not necessarily correspond for their habitual head posture.
On The idea of microtomography scans of cranium aspects in the holotype specimen, Sereno and colleagues produced a "prototype" Nigersaurus skull they could look at. In addition they designed an endocast of the brain and scanned the semicircular canals of its internal ear, which they located being oriented horizontally. Within their 2007 review, they said the construction from the occiput in the back of the cranium and cervical vertebrae might have limited the upward and downward movement with the neck as well as the rotation from the cranium.
Nigersaurus, a rebbachisaurid sauropod from the middle Cretaceous period, was learned while in the Elrhaz Development in Niger. Its name, which implies “Niger’s lizard,” was provided next the discovery of much more comprehensive remains in 1999, While its fossils have been initially described in 1976.
Sauropod dinosaurs, like Nigersaurus, walked on 4 legs, using a long “whiplash tail” and a protracted neck. But in comparison with other sauropods, it absolutely was reasonably small — sitting down someplace between an African and Indian elephant in measurement.
All those jaws held a thing under no circumstances ahead of observed inside of a sauropod dinosaur: It absolutely was among the list of initially dinosaur skulls with tooth, or "dental," batteries.
Nigersaurus also bears signs of small-angle tooth-to-tooth don on The within with the maxillary crowns, which indicates that jaw movement was limited to exact up-and-down motions. Worn teeth with the decreased jaw haven't nevertheless been found out, but They may be predicted to point out opposing tooth-to-tooth dress in. The opportunity to elevate their heads well over the ground will not automatically necessarily mean they browsed on products there, as well as the limited neck of Nigersaurus would've limited the browsing vary in comparison with other diplodocoids.[three]
The genus Nigersaurus was formally named in 1999 by American paleontologist Paul Sereno and his staff, adhering to the discovery of much more entire stays that authorized for a detailed description of the species.
are grouped within the subfamily Nigersaurinae with the loved ones Rebbachisauridae, which happens to Nigersaurus be Section of the sauropod superfamily Diplodocoidea. Nigersaurus
The jaws may have borne a keratinous sheath. Compared with other tetrapods, the tooth-bearing bones of its jaws have been rotated transversely relative to the rest of the skull, so that every one of its teeth were being Situated far to the entrance. Its skeleton was remarkably pneumatised (stuffed with air spaces connected to air sacs), however the limbs were robustly developed.
The snout was also proportionately shorter, and also the tooth row was in no way prognathous, the snout suggestion not protruding relative to the rest of your tooth sequence.[one] Nigersaurus was distinct in that its frontal bone (which shaped Substantially on the cranium-roof) was elongate (Substantially narrower than long), and had a marked cerebral fossa (a melancholy about the surface of the bone inside the head).[four] The maxillary tooth row was in its entirety transversely rotated, its ordinary rear ninety° everted to the front. This was matched by A similar rotation in the dentary with the decreased jaw. This transverse orientation of the upper and reduced tooth rows was exceptional on the dinosaur. Because of this configuration, no other tetrapod had all of its teeth Positioned as significantly towards the entrance as Nigersaurus.[three][4]
It additional argued that the orientation of your semicircular canals differs appreciably inside of fashionable species, and is also hence not reputable for determining head posture.[23] This was supported through the Spanish palaeontologist Jesús Marugán-Lobón and colleagues in a 2013 analyze that suggested the solutions utilized by Sereno's team ended up imprecise, and that Nigersaurus habitually held its head like other sauropods.[24]