Open Paleo

Barapasaurus

Jain et al., 1975 buh-RAH-puh-SOR-uhs /bəˌrɑːpəˈsɔːrəs/

From 'bara' meaning 'big' and 'pa' meaning 'leg' in several Indian languages including Bengali, combined with Greek 'sauros' meaning 'lizard', meaning 'big-legged lizard', referring to a femur measuring over 1.7 m. The species name honors Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore.

199.5–184.2 million years ago Sinemurian–Pliensbachian, Early Jurassic
Early Jurassic stages

Barapasaurus is a genus of basal sauropod dinosaur from Jurassic rocks of India. The only species is B. tagorei. Barapasaurus comes from the lower part of the Kota Formation, which is of Early to Middle Jurassic in age. It is therefore one of the earliest known sauropods. Barapasaurus is known from approximately 300 bones from at least six individuals, so that the skeleton is almost completely known except for the anterior cervical vertebrae and the skull. This makes Barapasaurus one of the most completely known sauropods from the Early Jurassic.

Under dispute

Barapasaurus is recovered as an early eusauropod by most analyses, more derived than Vulcanodon and Shunosaurus (Wilson and Sereno, 1998; Wilson, 2002; Pol and colleagues, 2022). Its redescription instead recovers it outside Eusauropoda, more basal than Vulcanodon, though forcing it into Eusauropoda costs only three steps (Bandyopadhyay and colleagues, 2010).

Diagnosis

  1. Teeth spoon-shaped with anterior and posterior keels bearing coarse denticles
  2. Centra not cavernous but with oval or ovoidal depressions in the lateral or laterodorsal surface
  3. Sacricostal yokes of sacrum set close together and do not contribute to the medial wall of the acetabulum
  4. Ilium with rather deep medial wall of the acetabulum; ischiadic peduncle short, pubic peduncle long and directed ventrally and slightly anteriorly
  5. Femora retaining a central cavity; lesser trochanter absent, fourth trochanter well-developed ridge-like with possible acute declined tip
  6. Scapula with tall narrow blade, anterior border passing by relatively shallow gradual curve into moderately broad proximal expansion

Species

Barapasaurus tagorei Jain et al., 1975

Type species

Means 'Tagore's' and honors Bengali poet, writer, painter, and musician Rabindranath Tagore; the first year of fieldwork was carried out in the centenary year of Tagore's birth.

Holotype
ISIR 50 , Geology Museum, Indian Statistical Institute
Material
Sacrum (four co-ossified vertebrae); greatest length of conjoined centra 70.5 cm, greatest width at first sacral 46.0 cm
Horizon
lower Kota Formation, Sinemurian–Pliensbachian, Early Jurassic , 199.5–184.2 million years ago
Locality
Pochampalli, Maharashtra, India

References

  1. Jain, S. L.; Kutty, T. S.; Roy-Chowdhury, T.; Chatterjee, S. (1975). The sauropod dinosaur from the Lower Jurassic Kota Formation of India. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A 188: 221-228. doi:10.1098/rspb.1975.0014 jain1975a
  2. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Sauropods. Princeton University Press.

    Treats Barapasaurus as a basal eusauropod; source of the hip height estimate.

    jones2026b
  3. Wilson, J. A.; Sereno, P. C. (1998). Early evolution and higher-level phylogeny of sauropod dinosaurs. Memoir (Society of Vertebrate Paleontology) 5: 1-68. doi:10.2307/3889325

    Recovered Barapasaurus within Eusauropoda under a stem-based definition; weakly supported.

    wilson1998a
  4. Wilson, J. A. (2002). Sauropod dinosaur phylogeny: critique and cladistic analysis. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 136(2): 215-275. doi:10.1046/j.1096-3642.2002.00029.x

    Recovered Barapasaurus within Eusauropoda, more derived than Shunosaurus.

    wilson2002a
  5. Bandyopadhyay, S.; Gillette, D. D.; Ray, S.; Sengupta, D. P. (2010). Osteology of Barapasaurus tagorei (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) from the Early Jurassic of India. Palaeontology 53(3): 533-569. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2010.00933.x

    Redescription placed Barapasaurus outside Eusauropoda, more basal than Vulcanodon; forcing it into Eusauropoda costs three steps.

    bandyopadhyay2010a
  6. Pol, D.; Gomez, K.; Holwerda, F. M.; Rauhut, O. W. M.; Carballido, J. L. (2022). Sauropods from the Early Jurassic of South America and the Radiation of Eusauropoda. South American Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs: Record, Diversity and Evolution 131-163. Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-95959-3_4

    Recovered Barapasaurus within Eusauropoda.

    pol2022a