Cow-like dinosaur discovered
mongabay.com
November 15, 2007
A dinosaur discovered in the Sahara had a mouth that worked like a vacuum cleaner and operated more like a "Mesozoic cow" than a reptile, report researchers writing in today's issue of the journal PLoS ONE.
Conducting CT scans on Nigersaurus taqueti--as the beast is known--the researchers found the plant-eating dinosaur had a lightweight skull and more than 500 teeth.
"Among dinosaurs, Nigersaurus sets the Guinness record for tooth replacement," said study lead author Paul Sereno, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago.
The first bones of Nigersaurus were collected in the 1950s by French paleontologists, though the species was not named until 1999 after Sereno's team member Didier Dutheil spotted skull bones in Niger in 1997. The species is named after French paleontologist Philippe Taquet, who worked earlier on Nigersaurus.
The 110-million year old Nigersaurus fossils, along with a reconstructed skeleton and skull, are on display in Washington in the National Geographic Museum at Explorers Hall. More details on the creature's anatomy and suspected behavior are described in the PLoS ONE paper and in a cover article in the December 2007 issue of National Geographic magazine, "Extreme Dinosaurs."
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