Open Paleo

Maleriraptor

Ezcurra et al., 2025 muh-LEH-ree-RAP-tuh

From the Upper Maleri Formation, where the holotype was collected, and Latin 'raptor' (thief, robber); meaning 'Maleri thief'.

227.3–205.7 million years ago Norian, Late Triassic
Late Triassic stages

Maleriraptor is an extinct genus of early-diverging herrerasaurian saurischian dinosaur from the early Norian (Late Triassic) Upper Maleri Formation of the Pranhita-Godavari Valley, Telangana, south-central India. The single species, Maleriraptor kuttyi, is known from a partial pelvis and associated sacral and caudal vertebrae (ISIR 282), originally described by Novas and colleagues (2010) as indeterminate Dinosauriformes; Ezcurra and colleagues (2025) re-evaluated the material and recovered it as a herrerasaurian outside the South American Herrerasauridae, filling a stratigraphic gap between Carnian South American herrerasaurids and middle-Norian-to-Rhaetian North American herrerasaurs.

Under dispute

Maleriraptor kuttyi is recovered as a non-herrerasaurid herrerasaurian outside Herrerasauridae (Ezcurra and colleagues, 2025); Jones (2026) instead classifies it within Herrerasauridae.

Diagnosis

  1. Centrum posterior to the second primordial sacral vertebra longer than each of the primordial sacral centra.
  2. Ilium with a postacetabular process shorter than 0.6 times the length between the pubic and ischial peduncles.
  3. Ilium lacking a brevis fossa.
  4. Lateral rugosity of the iliac postacetabular process restricted to its posteriormost tip (autapomorphy).
  5. Pubis with a ventrally directed shaft.
  6. Pubis with a very poorly developed distal anteroposterior expansion.

Species

Maleriraptor kuttyi Ezcurra et al., 2025

Type species

Honors T. S. Kutty, who discovered the holotype and co-authored its preliminary description.

Holotype
ISIR 282 , Geology Museum, Indian Statistical Institute
Material
First primordial sacral vertebra with right rib and base of left rib, distalmost portion of right second sacral rib, caudosacral or first caudal vertebra, anterior caudal vertebra, right ilium, proximal and distal ends of right pubis, proximal end of left pubis.
Horizon
upper Maleri Formation, Norian, Late Triassic , 227.3–205.7 million years ago
Locality
About 1 km south of Annaram village, Telangana, India

References

  1. Ezcurra, M. D.; Garcia, M. S.; Novas, F. E.; Müller, R. T.; Agnolín, F. L.; Chatterjee, S. (2025). A new herrerasaurian dinosaur from the Upper Triassic Upper Maleri Formation of south-central India. Royal Society Open Science 12(5): 250081. The Royal Society. doi:10.1098/rsos.250081

    Re-evaluates ISIR 282, originally described by Novas and colleagues 2010 as indeterminate Dinosauriformes, and recovers it as an early-diverging herrerasaurian outside Herrerasauridae.

    ezcurra2025a
  2. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Theropods. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the body length, mass, and hip height estimates.

    jones2026c
  3. Novas, F. E.; Ezcurra, M. D.; Chatterjee, S.; Kutty, T. S. (2010). New dinosaur species from the Upper Triassic Upper Maleri and Lower Dharmaram formations of Central India. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 101(3-4): 333-349. Cambridge University Press (CUP). doi:10.1017/S1755691011020093

    Originally described the Maleriraptor holotype (ISIR 282) as an indeterminate dinosauriform.

    novas2010a