USA/FILE: Paleontologists unveil the fossilized Sauropod dinosaur at the National geographic Society headquarters in Washington D.C
- 00:00:29
- ITN Source
USA/FILE: Paleontologists unveil the fossilized Sauropod dinosaur at the National geographic Society headquarters in Washington D.C
A 110-million-year-old dinosaur with a mouth that looks like a vacuum cleaner, hundreds of tiny teeth, and delicate nearly translucent skull bones, is unveiled at the National Geographic headquarters in Washington D.C. A weird-looking 110 million-year-old African dinosaur made its debut in Washington D.C on Thursday (November 15). Paleontologists unveiled the fossilized sauropod dinosaur at the National geographic Society. Its skull bones were originally discovered in Niger in 1997. They described it as having a weird anatomy including a mouth that powered through ground greenery like a vacuum cleaner, and almost translucent skull bones. It's been dubbed Nigersaurus Taqueti. Paleontologist Paul Sereno, who led the effort to uncover the dinosaur, explained at National Geographic headquarters in Washington D.C., gave the creature the Taqueti name in honour of French paleontologist Philippe Taquet who first brought to light this unusual animal in 1976 after the first fossils were found in the 1950s. The researchers used a combination of computer modeling, X-rays and good old-fashioned digging to build a model of an elephant-sized animal that lived 110 million years ago in what is now the Sahara desert in Niger. New CT scans of the dinosaur shows that the species had an extremely delicate skull and brain construction. That forced the dinosaur to keep its head low to the ground at all times. The researchers also found that Nigersaurus had 500 teeth, with up to eight replacements stacked up behind each tooth. The 50 columns of teeth, lined tightly along a squared-off jaw, made the dinosaur's mouth essentially a foot-long (0.3-meter) pair of scissors. Sereno's team first spied the skull bones of the Nigersaurus in 1997. On that expedition and a subsequent one, teams rounded up almost 80 percent of the total skeleton. Stretching about 13 meters (30 feet), the Nigersaurus was a younger and smaller cousin of the North American Diplodocus. It was hard pressed to lift its head above its back and grazed in a way that might suggest a Mesozoic cow rather than a reptilian giraffe.
ITN Source | November 19, 2007
