Here is yet another discovery of a dinosaur. It may no longer surprise or appeal us, but only the scientists. But, recently a new dinosaur finding breaks all the rules been generated till date. It has a strange, a stout sauropod with a muzzle shaped like a shovel! It might have mowed grass like a cow about 110 million years ago on the region, now the Sahara Desert. To add to, its bizarre jaw might have helped it hoover-up food after grazing – with the mouth shaped like the wide intake slot of a vacuum!
Its muzzle was broad enough to contain more than 50 columns of teeth lined up tightly along the front edge of its jaw. Thanks to paleontologist Paul Sereno and colleagues for digging up this rule-defying dinosaur, which they named Nigersaurus taqueti.
Recalling the discovery Sereno said,
The biggest eureka moment was when I was sitting at the desk with this jaw… That was an amazing moment; we knew we had something no one had ever seen before.
The Nigersaurus was 30-foot-long and had a feather-light skull, and grazed like an ancient cow. Its backbone consisted of more air than bone! And this, wouldn’t allow the dinosaur lift its head above its back, leaving it to maneuver about.
If you wish to witness the remains of the bizarre creature, visit the headquarters of the National Geographic Society, where it went on display Thursday and will remain there until March.
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