Kotasaurus
Kotasaurus | |
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Mounted skeleton of Kotasaurus; based on the holotype | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | Saurischia |
Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
Clade: | †Sauropoda |
Clade: | †Eusauropoda |
Genus: | †Kotasaurus Yadagiri, 1988 |
Type species | |
†Kotasaurus yamanpalliensis Yadagiri, 1988
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Kotasaurus (
Discovery
All known fossils come from an area of 2,400 m2 near the village of Yamanpalli in Telangana, approximately forty kilometres north of the Barapasaurus type locality. These finds, altogether 840 skeletal parts, were found in the late 1970s.[3] In 1988 they were named and described by P.M. Yadagiri as a new genus and species of sauropod, Kotasaurus yamanpalliensis. The generic name refers to the Kota Formation. The specific name reflects the provenance from Yamanpalli. The holotype is 21/SR/PAL, an ilium.[4]
The Geological Survey of India combined several elements into a skeletal mount and displayed it at the Birla Science Museum, Hyderabad.[2] In 2001, Yadagiri described the osteology in more detail.[2]
Description
Kotasaurus is one of the most basal sauropods known. The general body plan was that of a typical sauropod, but in several basal (
Autapomorphies (newly acquired features) include the relatively slender limb bones as well as the low and elongated preacetabular process (the forward-pointing process of the ilium).[2]
In 2019 Kareem and Wilson reported the presence of four
Classification
Initially, it was not clear if Kotasaurus represented a true sauropod or a basal sauropodomorph that has to be classified outside Sauropoda.
Today Kotasaurus is recognized as one of the most basal sauropods known. The exact relationships are not entirely clear, however. A recent study by Bandyopadhyay et al. (2010) renders Kotasaurus to be more basal than Barapasaurus and Vulcanodon but more derived than Jingshanosaurus, Antetonitrus and Chinshakiangosaurus.[1]
References
- ^ a b
Bandyopadhyay, Saswati; David D. Gillette; Sanghamitra Ray; Dhurjati P. Sengupta (2010). "Osteology of Barapasaurus tagorei (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) from the Early Jurassic of India". Palaeontology. 53 (3): 533–569. ISSN 1475-4983.
- ^ a b c d e f g Yadagiri, P. (2001). "The osteology of Kotasaurus yamanpalliensis, a sauropod dinosaur from the Early Jurassic Kota Formation of India". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 21 (2): 242–252. .
- ^ a b c
Glut, Donald F. (1997). Dinosaurs, the encyclopedia. McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers. pp. 521–522. ISBN 978-0-375-82419-7.
- ^ Yadagiri, P. (1988). "A new sauropod Kotasaurus yamanpalliensis from Lower Jurassic Kota Formation of India". Records of the Geological Survey of India. 11: 102–127.
- ^
Paul, Gregory S. (2010-09-21). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press. pp. 172. ISBN 9780691137209.
- ^ https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/glsp2019/wp-content/uploads/sites/700/2019/11/GLSP_2019_ProgramAbstracts.pdf