5 Simple Statements About 500 teeth dinosaur Explained

Nigersaurus was named after the West African country exactly where its fossils have already been located: The Republic of Niger. Back again when this animal roamed, forests and braided rivers covered the landscape. (Nigersaurus would've had to Be careful for Sarcosuchus, a large relative of recent crocodiles.)

Each of the tooth columns in Nigersaurus' dental batteries had been lined up, as opposed to the teeth of other dinosaurs, at the quite front of its mouth, positioned alongside the muzzle's Carefully curved periphery.

Further than its paleontological significance, Nigersaurus has gained interest on the web due to its identify. Some Net memes, significantly the "Really don't Google" trend, have highlighted the dinosaur as "the one with 500 teeth.

Nigersaurus, a rebbachisaurid sauropod from the center Cretaceous interval, was uncovered inside the Elrhaz Formation in Niger. Its name, which implies “Niger’s lizard,” was offered following the invention of much more complete remains in 1999, although its fossils were being very first described in 1976.

What dinosaur has 500 teeth? An unorthodox herbivore, this reptile grazed in what's now the Sahara Desert a hundred and ten million a long time in the past. These sauropod dinosaurs gathered foods that has a significant, broad mouth; the snout was wider compared to again on the creature's head on the first fossil cranium.

Dependant on this biomechanical analysis, the group concluded that The pinnacle and muzzle had been habitually oriented 67° downwards and close to floor amount, being an adaptation for floor-amount searching. This really is in contrast to the way in which other sauropods have already been restored, with their heads held more horizontally.[3]

As we’ve found, Nigersaurus had a wide muzzle and various teeth perfectly fitted to consuming reduced-lying crops. This diet regime and Life-style would've needed the creature to possess a continuous offer of replacement teeth, as it would've worn out its tooth crowns promptly. A examine published from the journal PLOS 1

We are not speaking about AA Duracells right here. Dental batteries had been productive food processing equipment used by lots of plant-taking in dinos.

The Nigersaurus, with its remarkable dental variety of 500 slender teeth in addition to a broad, squared-off muzzle, serves as being a exceptional window in to the evolutionary paths that dinosaurs took to adapt for their environments. This specialised feeder, contrary to most of its sauropod kinfolk, progressed to snip and take in soft, ample vegetation near the bottom, revealing a novel niche within the Cretaceous ecosystem.

The cranium of the Nigersaurus was crafted from skinny bones and experienced a lot of smaller openings and pores. These characteristics supplied them terrific versatility in feeding on the bottom. The muzzle on the Nigersaurus was wide and very long which helped it in feeding on smaller floor-dependent vegetation.

It further more argued which the orientation of your semicircular canals differs drastically within just fashionable species, and is particularly therefore not trusted for pinpointing head posture.[23] This was supported from the Spanish palaeontologist Jesús Marugán-Lobón and colleagues within a 2013 examine that proposed the strategies utilized by Sereno's staff were being imprecise, and that Nigersaurus habitually held its head like other sauropods.[24]

The limited knowledge of the genus was the result of lousy preservation of its remains, which arises in the delicate and really pneumatic building (stuffed with air Areas linked to air sacs) of your skull and skeleton, in turn leading to disarticulation on the fossils. Many of the cranium fossils were so skinny that a robust light-weight beam was noticeable by way of them. Hence, no intact skulls or articulated skeletons are already uncovered, and these specimens symbolize quite possibly the most complete identified rebbachisaurid remains.[3][1]

The journey to uncover the tricks from the Nigersaurus commenced with the main fossil fragments learned while in the 1970s within the Elrhaz Development of Niger, but it surely wasn’t right up until 1999 that a lot more total continues to be introduced this intriguing dinosaur to the 500 teeth dinosaur spotlight. These discoveries offered paleontologists with both equally issues and options.

Skeletal diagram of Nigersaurus taqueti, illustrating identified fossil elements and size comparison by using a human, depicting this Cretaceous sauropod's exclusive Bodily construction

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