Bruhathkayosaurus
From Sanskrit bruhath (बृहत्) meaning 'huge, great' + kaya (काय) meaning 'body' + Greek sauros (σαῦρος) meaning 'lizard'; overall meaning 'huge-bodied lizard'.
Bruhathkayosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur found in the Kallamedu Formation of India. The fragmentary remains were originally described as a theropod, but it was later determined to be a titanosaur sauropod. Length estimates by researchers exceed those of the titanosaur Argentinosaurus, as longer than 35 meters (115 ft) and weighing over 80 tonnes. A 2023 estimate placed Bruhathkayosaurus as potentially weighing 110-170 tonnes (110-170 long tons; 120-190 short tons), with paleontologist Michael Benton, estimating a length of 45 meters (148 ft). If the upper estimates of the 2023 records are accurate, Bruhathkayosaurus may have rivaled the blue whale as one of the largest animals to ever exist. However, all of the estimates are based on the dimensions of the fossils described in 1987, but these fossils have since disintegrated and no longer exist, making it impossible to affirm these estimates.
Diagnosis
- Gigantic body size with heavy, robust limb bones
- Large tibia, measuring 2000 mm in length and 380 mm in shaft width, larger than that of any carnivorous dinosaur known at the time of description
- Large ilium with a heavy, posteriorly massive puboischial peduncle
- Ilial plate broad posteriorly (130 mm) and narrow anteriorly (100 mm), with prominent muscular attachment depressions on the dorsal surface
Species
Bruhathkayosaurus matleyi Yadagiri & Ayyasami, 1987
Type species
Named for British paleontologist Charles Alfred Matley, who discovered many fossils in India.
- Holotype
- GSI PAL/SR/20 , Geological Survey of India (lost)
- Material
- A large ilium, 1200 mm in total length and 250 mm in median width, with a stout puboischial peduncle 400 mm long
- Horizon
- Kallamedu Formation, Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous , 72.2–66.0 million years ago
- Locality
- North East of Kallamedu Village, Tamil Nadu, India
References
- Yadagiri, P.; Ayyasami, K. (1987). A carnosaurian dinosaur from the Kallamedu Formation (Maestrichtian horizon), Tamilnadu. Symposium on Three Decades of Development in Palaeontology and Stratigraphy in India. Volume 1: Precambrian to Mesozoic (Sastry, M. V. A.; Sastry, V. V.; Ramanujam, C. G. K.; Kapoor, H. M.; Jagannatha Rao, B. R.; Satsangi, P. P.; Mathur, U. B., eds.) 11(1): 523-528. Geological Society of India. yadagiri1987a
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Galton, P. M.; Ayyasami, K. (2017). Purported latest bone of a plated dinosaur (Ornithischia: Stegosauria), a "dermal plate" from the Maastrichtian (Upper Cretaceous) of southern India. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen 285(1): 91-96. doi:10.1127/njgpa/2017/0671
Reports that the Bruhathkayosaurus type material disintegrated in its field jackets before reaching the Geological Survey of India and no longer exists.
galton2017a