Nigersaurus taqueti

Nigersaurus is a genus of rebbachisaurid sauropod dinosaur that lived during the middle Cretaceous period, about 115 to 105 million years ago. It was discovered in the Elrhaz Formation in an area called Gadoufaoua, in Niger. Fossils of this dinosaur were first described in 1976, but it was only named Nigersaurus taqueti in 1999 after further and more complete remains were found and described. The genus name means "Niger reptile", and the specific name honours the palaeontologist Philippe Taquet, who discovered the first remains.

Nigersaurus taqueti

Kabacchi · CC BY 2.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
NigersaurusPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Sauropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Sauropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Sauropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Sauropoda

Time the record covers

At most 21 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 121.4 Mya and 100.5 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Early Cretaceous — about 3 of 3 occurrencesEarly CretaceousLate Cretaceous — about 0 of 3 occurrences122–121 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences121–120 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences120–120 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences120–119 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences119–118 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences118–118 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences118–117 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences117–116 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences116–115 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences115–115 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences115–114 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences114–113 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences113–112 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences112–112 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences112–111 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences111–110 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences110–109 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences109–109 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences109–108 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences108–107 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences107–107 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences107–106 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences106–105 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences105–104 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences104–104 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences104–103 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences103–102 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences102–101 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences101–101 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences101–100 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences121.9 Mya100 Mya

3 occurrences of Nigersaurus taqueti on record, most of them in the Early Cretaceous. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

3 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Elrhaz — 16.45°N, 9.13°EElrhaz — 16.70°N, 9.33°EElrhaz — 16.47°N, 9.17°E

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The named rock units Nigersaurus taqueti has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Nigersaurus taqueti and its relatives

Early Cretaceous

Where Nigersaurus taqueti and its relatives were recorded in the Early Cretaceous.

Found in the same rock

21 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Nigersaurus taqueti, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

2 references

Each of the 3 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Each entry links to doi.org. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Nigersaurus taqueti

Credit
Kabacchi
Licence
CC BY 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
not stated by the source
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Nigersaurus taqueti · mnhn:f:GDF.2097

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution-NonCommercial
Commercial use
the licence does not allow it

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itNigersaurus through timeFormations of the Early CretaceousThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Sereno et al. 1999