A message that has been circulating online and Google auto-fills the suggestion whenever someone tries to search about the dinosaur with 500 teeth. When you search for this term on the internet, you’ll always see Nigersaurus in the results.
The Joke Turned Meme
- Reddit is where the meme gained its popularity. Users on that website claim that the name of the dinosaur is similar to the N-word which is a racial slur.
- There have been many jokes on social media that “Don’t search about the 500 tooth dinosaur.”
- Other people have used the racial slur itself in a comment saying “Ok, a dinosaur with 500 teeth.”
- These young comics on the internet suggest to the new internet users that the name of the dinosaur is similar to the racial slur. Others suggest not searching the whole term itself. Given that there are many racist people all around the world who spread negativity and racism.
How Did It Get Its Name?
- Nigersaurus was the given name because it was found in the Republic of Niger.
- The name Nigersaurus means a Niger Lizard or a Niger reptile. As the dinosaur has a bony figure with 500 teeth it looks like a lizard or a reptile. The Nigersaurus was one of the earliest dinosaurs ever discovered. Compared to the number of teeth that the dinosaur has, it is a herbivore, a 30 feet long dinosaur that eats plants and herbs.
- The dinosaur with 500 teeth belongs to the family of another dinosaur that scientifically is called the “Diplodocus-like sporoud dinosaurs”
- The dinosaur existed about 109-115 million years ago when life did not exist on the planet and the only thing that moved around the earth were giant meat-eating and plant-eating dinosaurs.
- These dinosaurs existed between the Albian and the Aptian age.
- Remains of the Nigersaurus were found in the early 1770s but it wasn’t until 1999 that it was confirmed that these are the remains of Nigersaurus.
- These remains were examined and explained later on to confirm the authenticity of the findings.
- The Nigersaurus is known as the Tegama group that was found in old Nigeria.
- The dinosaur, if left with other dinosaurs, could live with a variety of other dinosaurs due to the wide population stats and its ability to be calm and collected. It was not a vicious predator. It cannot be put into space with medium-sized and large carnivores but if kept with small carnivores the surroundings are going to be safe.
- The finding of this dinosaur was very startling even for scientists as it brought a lot to the table.
Habitat Of Nigersaurus
This dinosaur was a plant-eating dinosaur surrounded by tons of other predatory animals. The Nigersaurus had a wide set of teeth and a small and delicate skull to support its body. The wide mouth and the large number of teeth helped him search for his food and dig deeper into the ground for plants and herbs. The skull of the Nigersaurus was the first skull of a dinosaur to be reconstructed by a CT scan. This long-necked dinosaur with 500 teeth used to dig through the ground in broad daylight to find food for itself.
- The jaws of the Nigersaurus are the widest jaws ever, the jaws spread farther out and are even wider than its skull. The teeth at the upper jaw are 30% bigger than the bottom jaw. These helped the animal in keeping large predators away from it as it used them for protecting itself.
- As bizarre as it may seem the teeth of the dinosaur were replaced every 14 days and a new set of teeth was generated. Scientists found a variety of sizes and shapes of teeth that were said to be of the Nigersaurus.
- The finding and indication of the inner ear suggest that the dinosaur carried its head very close to the ground in the search of food and herbs, most of the vegetation was found inside the ground and the rest was left outside on trees for these plant-eating dinosaurs.
- Scientists collected fossils from all around the world. This suggests that Nigersauraus was able to adapt to different conditions easily.
Paleontology
- Scientists first discovered the remains of the dinosaur in the Sahara Desert. Although now there is no vegetation, water, or life on that part of the planet. But when the Nigersaurus used to live there, there used to be enough vegetation, water, and greenery all around for them to satisfy their hunger and quench their thirst.
- Discoveries tell that there were a number of flying reptiles, snakes, turtles, and dinosaurs all around that the nigersaurus used to live with.
- While these big and small predators roamed around the land, there were reptiles flying across the skies in search of their own food. They would shoot into the water to find tasty fish.
- The plants eaten by the Nigersaurus were mostly club moss and horsetails. The horsetails date back to 370 million years ago.
- It is possible the Nigersaurus never really ate grass. It’s hard to tell because it was several thousand years ago. The only thing left behind is the bark of a tree, tree leaves, herbs, and shrubs.
- The dinosaur had a walnut-sized brain cavity endorsing that it was not a very smart animal and did not have a big brain, most of its life it ate and munched on the grass along with walking along with green vast fields.
What Was The Size Of The Nigersaurus?
There are a variety of dinosaurs that you read about but the one that we are talking about over here had a wide mouth with a very noticeable tail and thick legs that helped in maintaining balance. This dinosaur with 500 teeth was relatively small in size having a length of only 30 ft and not a very big femur of only 3ft 3 inches.
The weight of the Nigersaurus was approximately around four tons which is the weight of an average elephant these days. There aren’t many dinosaurs as big as it. The Nigersaurus was fairly small as compared to the other dinosaurs at the time.
Some Interesting Facts About The Nigersaurus
- Scientists nicknamed Nigersaurus Mesozoic Cow. It’s because it had a very wide mouth. It helped it graze the grass on ground level.
- The eyes of the Nigersaurus were very large in size, according to the weight and mass of the body the very prominent feature apart from the jaws and teeth of the dinosaur were the eyes. It had cartoonish eye sockets that made it look less intimidating.
- Unlike other dinosaurs having bony bodies and spines, this one had a spine half-filled with air. The bones of the nigersaurus were hollow and filled with air which categorized it as a delicate predator. This indicates that it had a very complicated avian-style respiratory system.
Nigersaurus Was Named In 1976
- The dinosaur’s nose was comparatively small. Due to its small nose, its sense of smell wasn’t good. So it had to spend most of the time searching for food.
- It took a very long time for scientists to discover the dinosaur and come to the conclusion that it was a very weird dinosaur and entirely different from the ones that were walking the earth at that time. It received its scientific name in 1976 when scientists started discovering about the dinosaur.
- The skull of the dinosaur was very hollow which made it vulnerable to breaking. The Nigersaurus was a delicate dinosaur. It had air pockets in its body. And there were spaces between the spine and bones.
- The slender teeth of the dinosaur had slightly curved tooth crowns, the enamel on the teeth was thicker than the normal enamel on the tooth of a dinosaur.
The scientists only named the dinosaur after they found 800 fossil bones. The completion of the fossils was a splendid find and gave the first look into the details of the giant, how complex it was, and how the bone structure was different than any dinosaur ever found.
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