Rajasaurus
Artistic representation of live Rajasaurus narmadensis.
- India ( Lameta Formation)
- Rajasaurus narmadensis
Rajasaurus is a genus theropod dinosaur from the group of Abelisauridae. So far, a single fragmentary skeleton including skull is known from the Upper Cretaceous ( Maastrichtian ) comes the Lameta lineup in Gujarat (India). The only way is Rajasaurus narmadensis.
The name Rajasaurus (Sanskrit Raja - "king", gr sauros - " lizard" ) means something like "King Six Men ", while the second part of the species name, narmadensis, refers to the location in the Narmada Valley.
Features
It was a bipedal running, about 11 m long and 4 -ton carnivores. This genus was built relatively large and heavy, the legs were relatively short.
This genus can be explained by three autapomorphies ( unique characteristics) distinguished from other genera: Sun, located on the midline of the skull, a single, low horn, mainly from the paired nasal bone ( nasal ) and to a small extent from the paired frontal bone ( frontal ) is formed. A similar horn is known by some individuals of Majungatholus, but which largely comes from the prefrontal here. Another unique feature is the extremely prolonged Supra pace Ralf Rochester, the upper skull window the temporal region - in other Abelisauriden this skull window was nearly square. A third unique feature found on robust ilium ( ilium ), where a comb Brevis fossa is separated from the acetabulum.
Significance and systematics
Rajasaurus one of the few dinosaur species from the Lameta formation that are known by both cranial bones as well as bones of the rest of the skeleton ( Postkranium ), and so is the understanding of the Cretaceous Theropodenfauna India is of great importance. So far the eleven named theropod species from the Cretaceous of India based mostly on very fragmentary finds and are probably due largely identical to each other.
Wilson and colleagues ( 2003) come to the conclusion that Rajasaurus was a derived ( advanced ) Representatives of Abelisauridae, who was closely related to Majungasaurus and Carnotaurus.
History of Research and Fund
The date the only skeleton discovered, the paleontologist Suresh Srivastava in the years 1982-1984 during excavations in Gujarat, India.
Published in 1996 Chatterjee and Rudra is a brief description of the find. According to these two researchers, it is a " nearly complete skeleton of Indosuchus ". A comprehensive description of the skeleton and the simultaneous first description of the new genus Rajasaurus took place in 2003 by researchers at Jeffrey Wilson.
The site ( Temple Hill ) is located near the village Rahioli in the valley of the Narmada. The bones were not found in its original anatomical composite - but since they correspond in their size, they are attributed to a single individual. They come from a position of conglomerates. Above this layer is followed by a layer of calcareous sandstones containing dinosaur teeth, and a location with dinosaur eggs and nests.
The only specimen ( holotype, specimen number GSI 21141/1-33 ) includes a skull, vertebrae ( fragmentary vertebrae, each a fragment of a neck and a tail vertebra, sacral vertebrae ), pelvis ( the right and left iliac ( Ilia ) and a pubis fragment ( pubis ) ), leg bones (both thigh bone ( femurs ), shinbone ( tibia), the fibula ( fibula ) ) and metatarsal bones ( metatarsals ) with a.