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Science Holy cow, what a dinosaur!
Science Holy cow, what a dinosaur! | Holy cow, what a dinosaur! |
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| Written by Alex Zaharov-Reutt | |
| Friday, 16 November 2007 | |
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Dubbed as the “Darth Vader” of dinosaurs, you can see a gallery of the Nigersaurus at the National Geographic’s site. The head of this remarkable dinosaur is also set to go on display as the centerpiece of an exhibition at National Geographic Gallery in Washington DC. The Project Exploration website features an online exhibition and resource centre about the Nigersaurus complete with freely downloadable images and some great video animations including “from flesh to bones”, 360-degree rotating Nigersaurus skulls and close-ups of those fascinating teeth, while also being a great educational resource on exploration in general. For the scientifically inclined, the published paper is freely available from the Public Library of Sciences and is headlined by National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Paul Sereno, paleontologist and professor at the University of Chicago. National Geographic’s press release says that Nigersaurus, a younger cousin of the more familiar North American dinosaur Diplodocus, is small for a sauropod, measuring only 30 feet in length. It managed to feed its elephant-sized body with a featherweight skull armed with a battery of hundreds of needle-shaped teeth, said Sereno. Barely able to lift its head above its back, Nigersaurus operated more like a Mesozoic cow than a reptilian giraffe, mowing down mouthfuls of greenery that consisted largely of ferns and horsetails. The dinosaur’s oddest feature was a broad, straight-edged muzzle, which allowed its mouth to work close to the ground. Unlike any other plant eater, Nigersaurus had more than 50 columns of teeth, all lined up tightly along the front edge of its squared-off jaw, forming, in effect, a foot-long pair of scissors. A CT scan of the jaw bones showed up to eight “replacements” stacked behind each cutting tooth, so that when one wore out, another immediately took its place. There were more than 500 teeth in total, with a new tooth in each column joining the scissors edge every month. “Among dinosaurs,” Sereno said, “Nigersaurus sets the Guinness record for tooth replacement.”
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