Alwalkeria

Live reconstruction of Alwalkeria maleriensis

• Asia ( Andhra Pradesh, India)

• Alwalkeria maleriensis

Alwalkeria is a genus of basal theropod dinosaur from the Upper Triassic of Asia. The type species Alwalkeria maleriensis is the only kind described

Features

Alwalkeria was about as big as a turkey and probably an omnivore. The fossil remains of Alwalkeria - parts of the skull, remnants of the vertebral bone and the femur - were found in the Maleri Formation in the valley of the Godavari in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. These formations is dated to the Upper Triassic. The fossils are part of the maxilla and the mandible, 28 damaged vertebrae from different areas of the spine, a nearly complete femur and talus. The parts of the skull have a length of about four centimeters

Alwalkeria has differently shaped teeth in the upper jaw, depending on their position in the jaw. The front teeth are slender and straight, while the back teeth as predatory theropods have a wide base and are curved, but have no sawing edge. Due to the dentition, which neither fully let to a vegetarian nor isolated to a purely predatory lifestyle, it is assumed that Alwalkeria was an omnivore and has probably on insects, small vertebrates and plants nourished.

System

Although not very many remains are present, enough differences to probably closely related Eoraptor from South America could be detected, differ primarily in the shape and position of the teeth both types. With Eoraptor he shares the gap between the teeth of the premaxillary bone ( premaxilla ) and the maxillary bone maxilla in the upper jaw, so that the close relationship is established.

Eoraptor was already included in contrast to Alwalkeria in several cladistic work, its position in the scheme of the dinosaurs is not yet clarified. He is considered by Langer as basal dinosaurs lizards Beck, Paul Sereno puts him against it, and Fraser et al as a basal theropod dinosaurs within the lizards Beck. place it outside of the dinosaurs.

Naming

Sankar Chatterjee published in 1987 the first scientific description and chose Walkeria maleriensis for the binomials, after the British paleontologist Alick Walker and the Maleri lineup. The name had to be changed in 1994 by Chatterjee and Creisler because he was already taken.