A rich array of wildlife inhabits areas once populated by dinosaurs.
Lying south of the Indo-Gangetic plain, the densely forested Deccan plateau makes up 43 percent of India's land mass. Scientists from the Geological Survey of India have discovered large amounts of fossilized dinosaur eggs in the region, which indicate that the plateau was a popular habitat for a diverse array of dinosaurs 65 million years ago, before they were wiped out by Deccan volcanism.
Dinosaurs in India
During the Mesozoic era, India and Madagascar were joined, although they are far apart today. This accounts for the types of dinosaur fauna that were common to both and different from those found in the rest of Asia and Africa. These included the rajasaurus, the indosaurus, the majungasaurus, the indosuchus and the rahonavis.
Rajasaurus
Rajasaurus narmadensis, more commonly known as the regal dinosaur from the Narmada, was identified by paleontologists when bones of the species were discovered during a 1983 excavation in the Narmada Valley area. They described the dinosaur as being 25 to 30 feet long, stocky and carnivorous. Examinations of skull fragments indicate that it also had a horn. Having dated the bones, rajasaurus existed at the end of the Cretaceous era, 63 million years ago.
Indosaurus
Indosaurus matleyi, commonly known as the Indian lizard, is another species that existed in the late Cretaceous era. It was first identified by German paleontologists Friedrich Von Heune and Charles Matley in the 1930s, and its name is a derivation of Matley. The carnivorous creature would have weighed approximately 1,500 lbs., but little has been found to determine its height or length.
Majungasaurus
Also in this region at the end of the Cretaceous period was Majungasaurus, or the Mahajanga lizard, a bipedal predator with a short snout. It was approximately 25 feet long and would have weighed around 2,500 lbs. Many well-preserved examples of this species have been excavated, although it was French paleontologist Charles Depéret who first identified it in 1896.
Rahonavis
Rahonavis is a bird-like dinosaur from the late Cretaceous era. A small predator of just 2 to 3 feet in length, it possessed the raised sickle claw on its second toes, which are typical of velociraptors. The first fossilized remains of rahonavis were discovered in 1995. It has not been confirmed for certain that the creature could fly.
Tags: commonly known, dinosaur from, feet long, first identified, have weighed
