Animal planet

After the Reddit joke “don’t research the internet with what dinosaur has 500 teeth” went popular, the Nigersaurus 500 teeth became an online viral meme craze. A simple google auto-suggestion often triggers unusual occurrences that pique public interest in a certain problem or subject. The Nigersaurus is in a similar situation. This voracious dinosaur, which lived 115 million years ago in Niger, a tiny West African nation, was nothing like the meme! So, how did this one-of-a-kind dinosaur seem in its prime? And how did it come to light? So, here’s a quick rundown on the fabled “dinosaur with 500 fangs.”
Discovery
Nigersaurus was initially reported in a study article by Phillippe Taquet in 1976. During a trip in the Republic of Niger in 1965-1972, this French palaeontologist uncovered the remains. However, since there was no full skeleton, the find was often overlooked.
Near 1999, Paul Sereno, an American palaeontologist from Chicago University, led an excursion to the Elrahz Formation in Gadoyfaoua, Niger. He discovered the bones of this carnivorous dinosaur with 500 teeth in its entirety. In 2007, Sereno and his colleague Jeffrey A. Wilson published another paper on the Nigersaurus skull and eating behaviour. He also sent the National Geographic Society in Washington a full plastic replica of the dinosaur’s head.

Nigersaurus Fossil Discovered 500 teeth

“Nigersaurus 500 teeth, you may recall, we named after bones recovered on the previous trip here three years ago,” Sereno wrote in his online diary on September 9, 2000. The head of this sauropod (long-necked dinosaur) is remarkable, with 500 thin teeth. One of the expedition’s main objectives is to locate the remainder of this remarkable dinosaur so that we may describe and recreate it for everyone to see.”

He also went into great detail about how the crew found this one-of-a-kind dinosaur with 500 teeth. “While going over a relatively flat terrain, Gabe made a startling find—the bones of a new plant-eating dinosaur were partly exposed at her feet,” according to his report. The sand from her top jaw was wiped away. Parts of the backbone and hip bones were found nearby. The bones are from a skeleton that would be roughly 30 feet long, so this was a nasty client! As the field season progresses, we expect to uncover additional evidence of this sharp-toothed critter.”
Other fossils connected to this 500-toothed dinosaur have also been identified in Brazil. However, a full fossil has yet to be discovered. As a result, creating a full skeleton of the legendary Nigersaurus 500 teeth proved difficult. Nonetheless, palaeontologists are doing their best to do in-depth study in order to learn more about this ancient millennia mammal.
What’s with the name?
Because of its unusual name, Nigersaurus 500 teeth have become a target for internet memes. However, upon closer inspection, the name is a scientific method of naming dinosaurs. Nigersaurus taquet i eplacement teeth!
What did this 500 teeth dinosaur look like?
In a nutshell, Nigersaurus is related to Sauropods. It had a smaller skull, ticker hind legs, and a tail, much like every other dinosaur. It was barely 9 metres tall, with a 1-metre femur. They must have weighed 4 tonnes, according to palaeontologists. As a result, a Nigersaurus might have had the same height and weight as a contemporary elephant. It has a short neck with just thirteen cervical vertebrae due to its body composition.

Its cranium
The Fenestra holes in the skull of Nigersaurus are larger than those of other dinosaurs with longer necks. The cranium, on the other hand, was sturdy enough to withstand the shearing of the 500 teeth. Its nostrils were likewise bony and elongated.
They had shorter snouts. Nigersaurus 500 teeth, on the other hand, had shorter snouts. Their snot tip was proportionate to the tooth series and their tooth row was not prognathous. The Nigersaurus had an extended skull with a significant dip in the brain area, which was another distinguishing trait. In addition, their maxillary tooth was rotated in the same way as its lower jaw. Their mouth was able to contain all 500 teeth because of this unusual feature.
Their teeth were well suited to their carnivorous lifestyle. The lower jaw teeth were 20-30% smaller than those in the upper jaw. The teeth also featured uneven enamel and bent tooth crowns (thicker on the outside). It enabled them to uproot plants from the ground.

Body
This 500 teeth dinosaur was characterised by Paul Sereno as an ancient crocodile. It possessed one foot of armour plates on its back. Between the pneumatic apertures are thick fascinating laminae with extensively perforated vertebral arches. There were no firm centra in the vertebrae of its tail. Only a few millimetres separated the pelvic and pectoral progle bones. It possessed powerful limbs, much as other sauropods or elongated dinosaurs. The front lends may have been two-thirds the length of the rear legs, a diplodocus characteristic.
Classification of the 500 teeth dinosaur
Nigersaurus was initially placed as a dicraeosaurus by Touquet. Sereno, on the other hand, classed it as a rebbachisaurid diplodocoid. According to him, it also had shorter necks, which was a rebbachisaurid diplodocoid characteristic.

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This is how scientists classify it.
• Animalia kingdom
• Phylum: Chordata • Clade: Dinosauria • Clade: Saurischia • Clade: Sauropodomorpha • Clade: Sauropodomorpha • Clade: Sauropoda • Superfamily: Diplodocoidea
• Rebbachisauridae family • Rebecchi Suriname subfamily • Nigersaurus genus • Nigersaurus taqueti species
What did it consume?
Nigersaurus 500 teeth was assumed to be a herbivore at first. However, like any other sauropod, it is assumed to be a herbivore. Minor parallel tooth scrapes with pits are seen. This is common in herbivores who eat ferns, weeds, and other low-level plants. During this time, grass did not develop. As a result, this 500-toothed dinosaur lived by eating horsetails, angiosperms, ferns, and other plants. Due to their rigid neck and height, they did not eat cycads, aquatic plants, or conifers.
They are comparable to contemporary flamingos. Like these pink birds, Nigersaurus may have used its teeth as a comb to sift out water ferns and other plants while feeding. However, according to Sereno, nigersaurus may have also eaten short conifers and other ground-level vegetation.
It couldn’t eat plants properly because of the lateral placement of its teeth. As a result, their 500 teeth began to rot quickly. As a result, they required this large quantity of 500 teeth to guarantee that the defective teeth were replaced with fresh and functional ones. They have a faster rate of tooth replacement than any other herbivore dinosaur!
Where did it call home?
Nigersaurus 500 teeth lived in Gadoufaoua, Republic of Niger, in the Elhaz Formation of the Tegma group. Fluvial sandstones with low reliefs and occasional dunes with coarse-medium grains are found in this area. During the Mic-cretaceous era, however, this area was a floodplain. The wetlands provided it with enough food from the ground vegetation to keep it alive.
Conclusion
So, to summarise, Nigersaurus 500 teeth was a basic, harmless dinosaur that lived around 115 million years ago. Scientists need to learn more about this dinosaur in order to better comprehend it!