Information AboutNigersaurus |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT NIGERSAURUS | |
| diplodocoids | |
| dinosaurs of africa | |
| cretaceous dinosaurs | |
''Nigersaurus'' is a smallish (15 meters long), recently described Sauropod from the middle Cretaceous period. It is one of the most common species found in the rich fossil vertebrate fauna of the Elrhaz Formation , Gadoufaoua , in the Niger Republic , discovered by Philippe Taquet , and described in a paper published in 1976. ''Nigersaurus'' lived during the Aptian or Albian age, and is remarkable for its complex tooth batteries. Previously, such tooth batteries have been known only in Hadrosaur and Ceratopsian dinosaurs, but it now seems that at least one sauropod lineage, the Rebbachisaurs , had them as well. At “only” 15 meters in length, ''Nigersaurus'' was smaller than other members of the Rebbachisaur family, such as '' Rebbachisaurus '' itself, a large animal with a distinctive low "fin" on its back. ''Nigersaurus'', although smaller, had a similar fin, which in life would have consisted of skin and perhaps also flesh stretched across elongate Neural Spine s in the vertebrae. Although a common species, ''Nigersaurus'' has been poorly known until now, because of the delicate and highly pneumatic (filled with air spaces) construction of the skull and skeleton, which means that the fossil remains have been disarticulated. Paul C. Sereno and Jeffrey A. Wilson in 2005 provided the first description of the skull and feeding adaptations. ''Nigersaurus'' had as many as 600 teeth in its shovel-shaped head. REFERENCES
EXTERNAL LINK |
|
|