Barapasaurus

Artistic representation of live Barapasaurus

  • Maharashtra, India ( Kota Formation)
  • Barapasaurus tagorei

Barapasaurus is a genus of dinosaurs and a very early representative of the sauropods. The only way Barapasaurus tagorei comes from the Lower Jurassic of India. So far, the remains of at least six individuals are known, wherein the skeleton is almost completely known except for the front portion of the cervical spine and skull. This Barapasaurus is one of the most completely known sauropods of the Jurassic and is important for understanding the early evolution of this group of great importance.

Features

As one of the oldest known sauropod Barapasaurus already showed typical of later sauropods body with elongated neck vertebrae, a short trunk and pillar-like legs that have a mandatory four-legged locomotion. The body length is estimated to be about 14 meters and was already comparable to the later sauropods.

The spine already showed adaptations to a large body size as they were typical of later sauropods: So the bone mass of the cervical and dorsal vertebrae was reduced by cavities on the vertebrae and the spinous processes, which reduced the weight. The vertebrae were stabilized by additional connecting elements, the Hyposphen - Hypantrum connections. The sacrum, meanwhile, has been strengthened by an additional, fourth sacral vertebrae.

From the skull only three whole teeth and three crowns are known, with the largest Zann together with root is 5.8 cm high. As with later sauropods, these teeth were spoon- shaped, while the enamel was folded. An original feature was the coarse serrations of the cutting edges.

System

Jingshanosaurus

Antetonitrus

Chinshakiangosaurus

Kotasaurus

Barapasaurus

Vulcanodon

Shunosaurus

Camarasaurus

Omeisaurus

The phylogenetic relationships of Barapasaurus with other early sauropods are controversial. In 1975 the first description made ​​Sohan Jain and colleagues Barapasaurus attributed to none of the time under different families, but noticed a number of very original features. Since 1984 Barapasaurus is often classified together with the also very original Vulcanodon in a Vulcanodontidae mentioned family. Paul Upchurch (1995 ) defined a new group, the Eusauropoda that includes with all sauropods, except for some very original representatives including Vulcanodontidae. Unlike Vulcanodon however Upchurch Barapasaurus classified within the Eusauropoda; This interpretation is followed by most out published studies. However, Saswati Bandyopadhyay and colleagues ( 2010) come to the opposite conclusion that Barapasaurus was original must be classified as Vulcanodon and outside the Eusauropoda.

Research History and naming

All known fossils date from a single locality near the village Pochampalli in the Indian Deccan. The first Barapasaurus fossils found in 1958, most of the fossils were recovered during excavations in 1960 and 1961. In 1975, she was finally described by Sohan Jain and colleagues scientifically. 2010 was followed by a more extensive description of the skeleton. Today the remains found in the paleontological collection of the Indian Statistical Institute (Indian Federal Statistical Office, ISI) are archived; the bulk of the original fossil is mounted in a skeletal reconstruction in the ISI Geological Museum.

The name Barapasaurus is from the words bara - " large" and pa - " leg " of various Indian languages ​​as well as the Greek sauros - derived " lizard" and thus means "with great leg lizard". The names of donors indicated that they used this name since the early phase of the excavations of 1961 as the nickname of the new dinosaur, as a femur with a length of about 1.7 meters was discovered. The second part of the species name, tagorei shall, to the famous Indian poet Rabindranath Thakur ( Rabindranath Tagore is an older spelling) remember. The first excavation year would have been the same time the hundredth birthday of Thakur.

Paläohabitat

Barapasaurus comes from clay and sandstones of the lower portion of the Kota formation. Other vertebrate findings of this section include the original sauropods Kotasaurus and mammals Kotatherium, Indotherium and Indozostrodon with a. The upper part of the formation also contains fossil fish, a flying reptile, a turtle, two Sphenodontier, a lizard scales and various other mammalian species.

Taphonomy

The total of about 300 bones were found along with large fossil tree trunks in an area of ​​about 276 square meters. Although one of the skeletons was discovered in partial skeleton composite, most of the bones were present disjointed. By means of the six left femur, the total number of individuals is estimated to be at least six.

According to Bandyopadhyay and colleagues (2002, 2010), it is in these fossils to a Barapasaurus stoves, which came by a catastrophic event killed, possibly by a storm surge. The storm surge would also uprooted the trees that were found together with the Barapasaurus fossils. After the carcasses were transported a distance from the water, they began to rot, and the bones left the skeleton network. The light and fragile skull bones were washed away by water, leaving only the heavier bones of Postkraniums remained at the present location.

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