Reptiles that ruled
- POSTED ON: 10 Jun, 2022
- TOTAL VIEWS: 167 Views
- POSTED BY: Nimi Kurian | Article by R. Krithika
- ARTICLE POINTS: 150 Points
June 1 was World Dinosaur Day. And this is the perfect time to learn more about these giant creatures that roamed the earth millions of years ago. Dinosaurs were reptiles; the predecessors of today’s lizards, snakes, turtles and crocodiles.
The term ‘dinosaur’ – coined by scientist Richard Owen – is derived from a Greek word that means ‘terrible lizard’. The first complete skeleton of a dinosaur was unearthed in West Dorset, England, in 1878. These animals became extinct around 66 million years ago. Scientists believe that this was because of a catastrophic climate change caused either by vast volcanic eruptions or the impact of a large celestial object with the Earth.
In India, the first dinosaur skeleton was found near Jabalpur by an army officer in the British East India Company This was back in 1828. Since then many more have been found in various parts of the country. Take a look at some of them and figure out what they looked like by solving the shuffle puzzle.
Alwalkeria, a small omnivore, was from the Late Triassic period. The fossil was found in the Godavari Valley in Andhra Pradesh. Another one from Andhra Pradesh, this time from the Upper Dharamaram formation, is Pradhania, a genus of massospondylid sauropodomorph dinosaur.
Barapasaurus is a genus of basal sauropod dinosaur from Early Jurassic rocks in the lower Kota,Telangana. Barapasaurus means ‘big-legged lizard’.
Among the other fossils found in Telangana are Dandakosaurus, a genus of averostran theropod dinosaur; Jaklapallisaurus, a genus of unaysaurid sauropodomorph dinosaur; Kotasaurus (meaning ‘Kota Formation lizard’), a genus of sauropod dinosaur among others.
Rahiolisaurus is a genus of abelisaurid theropod dinosaur, which existed in India during the Late Cretaceous period. The fossils were recovered from the Lameta Formation in Gujarat.
Isisaurus – named after the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI)– is a genus of titanosaurian dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period. Its fossils were found near Warora, Chandrapur district, Maharastra.
Here are two other dinosaurs that have also been found in India. The Bruhathkayosaurus meaning ‘huge-bodied lizard’ was discovered around 1978 in the Tiruchirappalli district of Tamil Nadu. It is dated to the Maastrichtian stage of the Late Cretaceous period. Laevisuchus (meaning ‘light crocodile’) is a genus of theropod dinosaur also from the Late Cretaceous period. The name is a combination of the Latin word ‘laevis’ (means light) and the Greek name for the ancient Egyptian crocodile god, Soukhos. These fossils were found near Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh.