Ancient browser

No, not Netscape:

It has been 60 years since French paleontologists found the dinosaur's bones in Saharan Africa, and 10 years since Paul C. Sereno of the University of Chicago began assembling a more complete skeleton. Only now has his team recognized the plant eater's peculiar anatomy and foraging behavior.

The researchers reported yesterday that the dinosaur, named Nigersaurus taqueti, had a short neck, delicate bones and a habitual head posture pointed directly toward the ground. This was a ground-level browser like modern cows.

No cud-chewing, though:

The muzzle itself was odd. In contrast to other plant-eating dinosaurs, this one had more than 50 columns of teeth, all lined up along the jaws' front edges, forming, in effect, foot-long scissors.

The CT scans of the jawbones showed up to nine replacement teeth stacked behind each cutting tooth. When one wore out, another immediately took its place, at a rate, perhaps, of one a month in each column.

From the NY Times. Looks like there will be a much fuller writeup in the December National Geographic.

Posted by David on November 16, 2007 8:55 AM