Introduction
You might have googled the dinosaurs with the most number of teeth. But have you ever wondered on what basis we classify dinosaurs? We classify dinosaurs based on their skeletal features. Two main classifications of them are bird-hipped and lizard-hipped. The skeletal features of dinosaurs also include dinosaur teeth. The one which had the largest number of teeth is Nigersaurus Dinosaur. it is one of the ancient dinosaurs that occurred almost 1100 years ago. To know more about it, let’s research some more!
What is the Name of the Dinosaur with 500 Teeth
The type of Dinosaur with 500 teeth is the Nigersaurus Dinosaur which lived almost 1100 years ago in the central region of North Africa.
Nigersaurus Dinosaur
Nigersaurus dinosaur is classified based on its huge amount of teeth, i.e., 500 teeth. Its upper jaw has 60 columns of needle-shaped, small teeth. And almost 68 columns of teeth were present in its lower jaw. The genus is Rebbachisaurid sauropod which includes huge herbivorous dinosaurs and diplodocus animals. It walked on its four legs.
Discovery
The generic name of Nigersaurus means it is a niger reptile. It was first discovered by a French palaeontologist named Philippe taquet. That’s why its specific name is ‘Taqueti’ in the landlocked West African country in 1976. A complete and more extensive discovery was made on the site in late 1999 by an American palaeontologist Paul Sereno. The research was done in the Elrhaz Formation in an area called Gadoufaua, in Niger. The scientist gave him the name “Nigersaurus taqueti” after that complete study.
Its origin is believed to be from the central region of North Africa, and other more remains were found in Niger, Algeria, and Tunisia. The genus name Nigersaurus refers to the country where they first found it. The remains of Nigersaurus are in the display at the National Museum of Niger. Firstly, Sereno and Jeffrey A. Wilson provided a detailed description of the dinosaurs. The second detailed description was published by Sereno and his other colleagues in 2007.
Classification of the Dinosaur with 500 teeth
Here is its scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Chordata
- Clade: Dinosauria
- Clade: Saurischia
- Clade: Sauropodomorpha
- Clade: Sauropoda
- Superfamily: Diplodocoidea
- Family: Rebbachisauridae
- Subfamily: Rebecchi Suriname
- Genus: Nigersaurus
- Species: Nigersaurus taqueti
Facts
Following are some facts about the type of Dinosaur that had 500 teeth:
- They reconstructed the Dinosaur skeleton in 2007 to show everyone by the National Geographic Society in Washington.
- Many similar fossils of this specie were found in other places such as Brazil.
- The 30 ft herbivore would have roamed in the region of the Sahara desert.
- It lived about 115 to 105 million years ago in the Cretaceous period.
- It was a type of Rebbachisaurid sauropod dinosaur.
- Its long, bizarre neck is characterized by its broad, straight-edged muzzle tripped with more than 500 replaceable teeth.
- It had been the beauty of social media around a decade ago
- Its skull was one of the first dinosaur skulls digitally reconstructed from the CT scans.
- The bones of a new meat-eating dinosaur were found in the area they were researching.
- The Dinosaur used to eat the leaves of the trees as it was a herbivore.
What Dinosaurs that have More than 500 Teeth
Nigersaurus specie of dinosaurs was one of the primitive dinosaurs that had 500 teeth. The Dinosaur lived in Niger and nearby areas of North Africa. This specie had a light body and hollow bones than other Dinosaurs of its family.
What Characteristics Distinguish Nigersaurus And Other Dinosaurs
Nigersaurus Teeth
People usually seem unknown when they are asked about that what dinosaurs had 500 teeth. Nigersaurus is the type of Dinosaur that has 500 teeth. The wide mouth of this type of Dinosaur is a specialised foraging tool with four large side holes, a skull opening, and animal bones. Its wide nose had more than 500 teeth and was thought to be replaced every 14 days.
The structure of the mouth, teeth, and jaws was unorthodox. There are dental batteries present in their mouth. It contains 60 columns of needle-shaped teeth in the upper jaw and 68 columns of teeth in the lower jaw.
Nigersaurus Size
Nigersaurus was smaller than another genus of the specie Sauropods. Its size is estimated to be about 30 feet long. They had weight almost equal to the weight of modern African elephants( about 4-5 tonnes). You can say that Nigersaurus was a little giant of its time.
Nigersaurus has a lighter framework and a shorter neck than other family members.
Long-Necked
It is believed that Nigersaurus had a slightly lighter frame and a shorter neck than other members of its family. Other members of its family had a neck of 15 meters, whereas Nigersaurus had a neck of 10 meters.
Plant Eater
Nigersaurus only eat plants which means that they are herbivorous animals. The long neck made it possible for them to eat the leaves of tall plants in the forest.
Posture Discussion
The Dinosaur Nigersaurus Taqueti had a delicate, unusual skull and a wide mouth. Its posture was adapted so that it made him help browse plants on the ground as well. Its vertebrae allowed a wider range of movements.
Nigersaurus Habitat
Nigersaurus lived in a floodplain with wide rivers, conifer forests, and lush vegetation to help him aid in eating his food from green plant areas.
Nigersaurus Weight
Nigersaurus taqueti weighed about 4-5 tonnes, equivalent to modern elephants present in our age.
Nigersaurus Skull
It was a quadruped animal that had thick hind legs. It also had a small head, prominent tail, small body of about 30 feet long, and a femur measured about three ft. 3 in.
Body Structure
This Dinosaur has a very unique and light body with a light skeleton. It had armor plates on its back, heavy pierced vertebral arches with thick interesting laminae between the pneumatic openings. Its pelvic and pectoral bones were only a few millimetresthick, robust limbs. In short, it had a distinct feature of diplodocus animals.
FAQ’s
Who named the Nigersaurus?
Nigersaurus is named by the American palaeontologist Paul Sereno as Nigersaurus taquet based upon the place where its fossils were found and the scientist who first found it.
What period was the Nigersaurus?
Nigersaurus was found in the middle of the Cretaceous period, about 115-105 million years before today.
How do you pronounce the Dinosaur with 500 teeth?
The ‘g’ in it is pronounced as “j”; hence it sounds like “Ni-jee-sor-us,” according to the “National History Museum.”
What is the unique feature of the Nigersaurus?
The animal had several unique features that made him different from other members of his family. This animal’s most unique and interesting feature is its number of teeth. It has 500 teeth—60 in the upper jaw and 68 in the lower jaw.
What did Nigersaurus eat?
They are the long, light weighed, flexible stature dinosaurs. They are herbivorous, and they used to eat the leaves of long herbs and shrubs of the plant. The flexible skeleton made him move and eat leaves from the ground and small sized plants.
Is it a dinosaur with the largest number of teeth?
Nigersaurus has an impressive number of teeth, but this doesn’t make it stand out from all dinosaurs in the number of teeth. Hadrosaurid still has as large as 1400 teeth, the largest number yet. Although they both had pointy, needle shaped teeth.
Final Words
Nigersaurus is the type of Dinosaur with 500 teeth and is a part of viral memes. It belongs to the group of Sauropod dinosaurs. Nigersaurus was smaller than his other family members because it had a smaller neck and stature. It was a herbivorous animal.
