SauropodomorphaRebbachisauridae

Nigersaurus taqueti

Nigersaurus taqueti skeletal reconstruction, left lateral view, reconstructed length ~13 m.
Scale bar = 1 meter
Taxon
Nigersaurus taqueti Sereno et al., 1999
Reconstructed length
~12.8 m (42 feet)
View
Left lateral
Drawing
© Scott Hartman
Drawn
2012, revised 2022
Clade
  1. Sauropodomorpha
  2. Sauropoda
  3. Neosauropoda
  4. Diplodocoidea
  5. Rebbachisauridae

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Nigersaurus is a bizarre-seeming rebbachisaurid from the Cretaceous of (surprise!) Niger. Unlike long and medium-necked relatives, Nigersaurus had a short neck barely more than long enough to graze plants close to the ground. And to go with its grazing adaptations, its skull had a broad, straight-edged muzzle packing hundreds of teeth into a dental battery - in some ways it looked like a sauropod trying to become a hadrosaur (though with lots of little teeth instead of a beak).

The fact that true grazing diplodocoids are known, with clear adaptations for feeding in this manner should potentially be a note of caution for those arguing that longer-necked diplodocids were also grazing specialists.