Rahiolisaurus

• Gujarat, India ( Lameta Formation)

• Rahiolisaurus gujaratensis

Rahiolisaurus is a genus theropod dinosaur from the group of Abelisauridae. Fossils date from the Upper Cretaceous ( Maastrichtian ) of Lameta lineup in India. All the fossils come from a single quarry in the Indian state of Gujarat, however, were among at least seven different individuals.

The animal was described in 2010 by Fernando Novas and colleagues with the single species R. gujaratensis scientifically. The relationships of the genus within the Abelisauridae have not been thoroughly investigated.

Rahiolisaurus is named after the village Rahioli where the fossils were found. The second part of the species name, gujaratensis, has the Indian state of Gujarat.

Features

Rahiolisaurus was a great Abelisauride. An adult specimen with a 77 -centimeter-long femur is estimated at a body length of 8 meters, based on comparisons with the Majungasaurus better known. The physique was compared with the derived also from the Lameta lineup Rajasaurus relatively gracile, the legs were relatively slim. From the skull only a right premaxillary bone ( premaxilla ) is known - as in other Abelisauriden it shows a rugose surface and contains four teeth, a typical theropod original number.

From related Abelisauriden can distinguish this genus by a number of unique features: For example, the teeth of the premaxillary bone in cross section, for example, were tear-shaped, while the Postacetabularprozess of the ilium has a deep notch.

Discovery

The fossils come from a single, 50 -square-foot quarry near the village of Rahioli in Kheda district in the western India. They were discovered during excavations in 1995 and 1997 and now preserved in the Indian Statistical Institute in Calcutta. Chatterjee and Rudra (1996 ) attributed the findings initially to the genus Indosuchus. The fossils were mostly found disarticulation (outside of the original anatomical grouping), which is why every bone its own copy number was assigned. The holotype specimen consists of three associated encountered bone: a right iliac (ISIR 550), a right pubis (ISIR 554) and a right femur ( ISIR 558 ). The fossils date from at least seven different individuals from different ages, after which the seven discovered the right tibia indicate. Since these skeletal elements repeatedly found which have no variations that could indicate a number of ways, all bones of the discovery site of a single species are attributed.

Documents

Used literature

• Fernando E. Novas, Sankar Chatterjee, Dhiraj K. Rudra, PM Datta: Rahiolisaurus gujaratensis, n Gen. n sp, A New theropod from the Late Cretaceous Abelisaurid of India. . In: Saswati Bandyopadhyay (ed.): New Aspects of Mesozoic Biodiversity. Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, 2010, ISBN 978-3-642-10310-0, pp. 45-62, doi: 10.1007/978-3-642-10311-7.