"Bizarre Dinosaur" Nigersaurus - animation showing "alert" posture of head

Animation of the skull, brain endocast, and inner ear of the diplodocoid sauropod dinosaur Nigersaurus. The animation starts with sortuva "normal-looking" head posture, but transparency reveals a rotated brain and inner ear; rotating the inner ear so that it's oriented like modern-day animals do when they're alert shows that Nigersaurus had an almost vertical alert posture. This movie was generated to accompany the "Bizarre Dinosaurs" premiere on 11 Oct 2009 on the National Geographic Channel. Rendered in Amira and QuickTime by Ryan Ridgely. Also available on our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/witmerlab. For more on Nigersaurus, including the PLoS ONE publication, visit http://www.oucom.ohiou.edu/dbms-witmer/Nigersaurus_main.htm

Category:

Education

Tags:

• dinosaur
• sauropod
• Nigersaurus
• brain
• CT
• scan
• inner
• ear
• behavior
• anatomy
• morphology

[witmerlab]

To finish up... When we put Nigersaurus in its "alert posture," indeed it's head points straight down. We're not saying that this is their habitual posture, but most animals spend a lot of their lives being alert and so I'm guessing Nigersaurus mostly fed in this posture, too. Keep in mind that, although the teeth are facing the ground, the eyes are perched higher and oriented for scanning the surroundings.

[witmerlab]

This is Witmer replying to you now. The reality is that most animals can and do move their heads all over the place for various behaviors. However, research on modern-day animals shows that when animals are alert and all their senses are heightened, they tend to orient their heads such that their inner ears have a particular orientation (the lateral semicircular canals are horizontal).

[Albukhshi]

for whoever posts these vids in lieu of Dr.Witmer:

did nigersaurus's head face directly downwards towards the ground?