Here is the cast of a dinosaur skull fossil called Nigersaurus tauqueti. It is a cast of specimen MNN GAD512 at the Musée National du Niger, Niamey, Niger, Africa. This cast is from the holotype specimen found in "niveau des innocents" of the Gadoufaoua region of Republique du Niger. The species is named for French paleontologist Phillippe Taquet who explored the area from 1965-1972.
The head of this dinosaur with its neat rows of teeth reminds me of a wire crimping pliers tool.
Learn more about this type of dinosaur in this research article at PLOS One called Structural Extremes in a Cretaceous Dinosaur.
Dinosaur was named in the journal SCIENCE published 12 November 1999 in article entitled: Cretaceous Sauropods from the Sahara and the Uneven Rate of Skeletal Evolution Among Dinosaurs.
This cast was part of the Ultimate Dinosaurs: Giants from Gondwana exhibit at the Museum of Natural History and Science in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was photographed in August 2013. The dinosaur exhibit was created by the Royal Ontario Museum of Toronto Canada.
The exhibit was supported by Associate Exhibit Sponsor Frisch's restaurant and Promotional Partners Cincinnati Reds baseball, newspaper The Enquirer and TV channel Local 12 WKRO Cincinnati.
That is a really cool fossil! Glad you got up to the display.
ReplyDeleteDinosaurs are not really my focus but this fossil was quite cool. The lighting in the room makes it hard to photograph but it had a unique array of teeth.
ReplyDeleteI have been really busy teaching so this blog has not been maintained very well. A number of entries have been queued up including some neat Ordovician fossils. Also the future will reveal some nice Devonian shark fossils.
It is good you have been blogging consistently this year!
Great!
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