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Nigersaurus. Nigersaurus (/ niːˈʒɛərsɔːrəs, ˈnaɪdʒərsɔːrəs /) is a genus of rebbachisaurid sauropod dinosaur that lived during the middle Cretaceous period, about 115 to 105 million years ago. It was discovered in the Elrhaz Formation in an area called Gadoufaoua, in Niger. Fossils of this dinosaur were first described in 1976 ...
Sauropods were herbivorous (plant-eating), usually quite long-necked [15] quadrupeds (four-legged), often with spatulate (spatula-shaped: broad at the tip, narrow at the neck) teeth. They had tiny heads, massive bodies, and most had long tails. Their hind legs were thick, straight, and powerful, ending in club-like feet with five toes, though ...
Unique among sauropods, at least some rebbachisaurids (such as Nigersaurus) are characterised by the presence of tooth batteries, similar to those of hadrosaur and ceratopsian dinosaurs. Such a feeding adaptation has thus developed independently three times among the dinosaurs. So far, rebbachisaurids are known only from the middle and early ...
Jobaria was a primitive sauropod, about 18.2 metres (60 ft) long and estimated to weigh about 22.4 tonnes (24.7 short tons). [2] In 2016 Gregory S. Paul gave a lower estimation of 16 metres (52 ft) and 16 tonnes (18 short tons). [3] Its backbone and tail were simple compared to the complex vertebrae and whiplash tail of the later North America ...
The fact that the teeth are poorly preserved while the Spinophorosaurus skeleton is well-preserved indicates that the teeth were transported before being buried with the sauropod. [41] Dinosaur tracks were found some hundred metres away from the Spinophorosaurus site, including a trackway of six footprints from a mid-sized sauropod as well as ...
Suchomimus. Suchomimus (meaning "crocodile mimic") is a genus of spinosaur dinosaur that lived between 125 and 112 million years ago in what is now Niger, North Africa, during the Aptian to early Albian stages of the Early Cretaceous period. It was named and described by paleontologist Paul Sereno and colleagues in 1998, based on a partial ...
Ceratopsians developed a method of slicing with teeth stacked on each other in batteries, and iguanodontians refined a method of grinding with dental batteries, taken to its extreme in hadrosaurids. [122] Some sauropods also evolved tooth batteries, best exemplified by the rebbachisaurid Nigersaurus. [123]
Nigersaurus was 9 m (30 ft) long, which is small for a sauropod, and had a short neck. It weighed around four tonnes, comparable to a modern elephant. Its skeleton was filled with air spaces connected to air sacs, but the limbs were robustly built. Its skull was very specialised for feeding, with a wide muzzle filled with more than 500 teeth.