Kotasaurus
- Andhra Pradesh, India ( Kota Formation)
- Kotasaurus yamanpalliensis
Kotasaurus is a genus of dinosaurs and a very early representative of the sauropods. The only way Kotasaurus yamanpalliensis comes from the Kota Formation from the Lower Jurassic of India ( Sinemurian to Pliensbachian ) to Kotasaurus shared its habitat with the related Barapasaurus. The previously discovered remains belong to at least 12 different individuals. The skeleton is mostly known from the skull, however, only two teeth were found. Like all sauropods had Kotasaurus a large, four-legged herbivore with a long neck and tail.
Features
Kotasaurus is one of the most primitive known sauropods. Although the general physique of a typical sauropods, but in many of its original ( plesiomorphic ) features, this genus resembles the " prosauropods ", the forerunners of the sauropods. Like all other sauropods Kotasaurus was obligate quadrupedal, in contrast to the two-legged prosauropods. The body length was about 9 meters and was already comparable to the later sauropods. The femur was straight and showed an oval cross section, indicating columnar legs. The teeth were spoon-shaped and thus correspond to those of later sauropods. Original features, however, reveal, for example, the upper arm bone, which was rotated relatively short and easy. At the femur of the small trochanter ( trochanter minor) was still present. The vertebrae were simply built and solid - weight-reducing cavities, as they are already with the contemporary Barapasaurus missing.
Newly acquired features ( autapomorphies ) of Kotasaurus were the relatively slender leg bones as well as the low and long Präacetabular process ( the forwardly directed projection of the ilium ).
System
Initially, it was unclear whether it is already trading at Kotasaurus a true sauropods, or a closely related with the sauropods precursor form. Often this species was lumped together with Vulcanodon, Barapasaurus, Ohmdenosaurus and Zizhongosaurus to Vulcanodontidae mentioned family very early sauropod. Today, however, this group is considered to be paraphyletic and hence invalid.
Today Kotasaurus is one of the most primitive known sauropods, the exact relationships are unclear. A recent study by Bandyopadhyay and colleagues ( 2010) come to the conclusion that Kotasaurus original than Vulcanodon and Barapasaurus, but more advanced than Chinshakiangosaurus and Antetonitrus.
Jingshanosaurus
Antetonitrus
Chinshakiangosaurus
Kotasaurus
Barapasaurus
Vulcanodon
Discoveries and naming
All known fossils come from a 2.4 -acre area near the village Yamanpalli in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, about 40 km north of the Barapasaurus locality. The total of 840 skeletal parts were salvaged in the late 1970s and 1988, described by P. Yadagiri as Kotasaurus yamanpalliensis scientifically. Today, the fossils are archived in the collection of the Geological Survey of India, Hyderabad.
Kotasaurus is named after the Kota Formation, from whose lower section are the fossils. The second part of the species name - yamanpalliensis, has the village Yamanpalli, the location is close to it.