If you picture a set of gnashing dinosaur teeth, the Tyrannosaurus Rex may spring to mind. After all, their bite force was so powerful they could crush bone. But when it comes to which dinosaur had the most teeth, they don't even compare to their toothier rivals.
Which dinosaur has the most teeth?
Nigersaurus, a smaller, flat-faced relative of the Diplodocus, had teeth set in rows along the jaw’s wide, front edges. Each of its 100-plus tooth placements was filled with a column of up to 10 teeth at various stages of wear and development – maybe 1,000 in all. The oldest, most worn teeth on top were shed every two weeks. The Nigersaurus was a herbivore, so likely needed all of those teeth to grind down tough material.
The palaeontologist Paul Sereno, who discovered its bones, told NPR, "Well the first thing that comes to my mind is that this is the weirdest dinosaur I've ever seen," he says. "It's some kind of Darth Vader dinosaur when you look at the skull. You put the skin on it and ... most people think it looks like a vacuum."
Close behind are the hadrosaurids, or duck-billed dinosaurs, which possessed as many as 800 cheek teeth, arranged in a tightly packed mosaic that provided a grinding surface for processing tough plant material.
More of your prehistorical questions answered
- Can a dinosaur be mummified?
- Why are the cliffs of the Jurassic Coast filled with dinosaur fossils?
- Were dinosaurs good parents - and how on earth do we know?
- How many species of dinosaurs were there?
Main image: 3D rendering of an Acrocanthosaurus/Getty