Nevertheless, a far more in depth paper on the whole Nigersaurus skeleton came in 2007. At the moment, many specimens found by other paleontologists are underneath evaluation and further aspects will emerge because the study will continue.
A 2015 cladistic study by Wilsona as well as the French palaeontologist Ronan Allain uncovered Rebbachisaurus itself to team Together with the nigersaurines, plus the authors instructed that Nigersaurinae was therefore a junior synonym of Rebbachisaurinae (because that name would've precedence).
Regardless of its more compact measurement, Nigersaurus is noteworthy for its exceptional adaptations, significantly its specialized teeth and feeding mechanisms, which distinguish it in paleontological studies.
Nigersaurus is an important discovery for paleontologists mainly because it helps you to get rid of light-weight to the evolution and variety of sauropods throughout the mid-Cretaceous period.
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In 1997, when paleontologist Paul Sereno first started to unearth the remains of the dinosaur in Niger's Sahara Desert, he didn’t know what to Assume. He was excavating bones in the dry location termed Gadoufaoua, which had a abundant fossil bed 1st identified by French uranium miners.
The swift replacement of its teeth, each 14 times, suggests that the Nigersaurus confronted substantial evolutionary pressures to keep up a continuing offer of useful teeth to manage with abrasive plant material. This adaptation underlines the evolutionary critical to improve feeding effectiveness in an setting where meals sources varied and Opposition was intense.
This swift tooth substitute, with new teeth expanding each and every fourteen times, ensured it preserved sharp edges for grazing on tender vegetation. The unique dental arrangement produced it extremely efficient at processing low-lying vegetation, contributing to its reputation as being a specialised herbivore.
Nigersaurus is Just about the most archaeologically significant dinosaurs because it is helping scientists to higher fully grasp the anatomy and physiology of other sauropods. It is also The most wholly known rebbachisaurids, with above two hundred bones of at the very least 17 unique dinosaurs learned.
When the 1st fossils of Nigersaurus ended up discovered in 1976, paleontologists couldn’t identify them as a different species. It really is since the skeleton fossils ended up incredibly hollow and distorted.
Better but, All those tooth columns were being packed proper together with each other—like canned sardines. So a dinosaur armed with dental batteries could easily house a number of hundred teeth (old and new) within its mouth.
Wedel and mentioned in 2016 that even though sauropods generally could use their lengthy necks to detect predators from afar, this would not implement for the short-necked Nigersaurus. They identified the eyes of Nigersaurus had been put even more to the very best from the skull than for most other sauropods, earlier mentioned the muzzle, which would give it overlapping fields of view. Its Visible field would've been Nigersaurus at or near to 360 levels, and hypersensitivity of movement would've been imperative that you a susceptible prey-animal.[20]
The dinosaur's vertebrae was stuffed with air pockets comparable to those of birds, Hence the dinosaur was likely really light, in addition. Its Mind was concerning the dimension of the walnut, that's kind of regular for sauropods, Sereno says.
The Nigersaurus, with its staggering five hundred teeth, provides an interesting distinction to its dinosaur family, Particularly other sauropods. In contrast to its cousins with less, thicker teeth, the Nigersaurus’s slender, pencil-like teeth ended up uniquely tailored for snipping comfortable vegetation, a stark distinction with the robust teeth of sauropods like Brachiosaurus, which have been most likely designed to cope with harder plants.