Dinosaur that lived 220 million years ago, Maleriraptor kuttyi, discovered in India; revealing insights into prehistoric Earth
When a group of ancient bones were discovered in India many decades ago, few might have imagined how important they would prove to understanding
. The small meat-eating dinosaur, Maleriraptor kuttyi, which lived 220 million years ago, is now providing crucial insights into how some of Earth's earliest dinosaurs survived and proliferated.
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Its existence defies earlier theories regarding the extent and adaptability of early predatory organisms, particularly in the aftermath of mass extinctions, and underscores the role of geography and climate in controlling the distribution of these ancient beings.
New dinosaur fossil discovery in India identifies Maleriraptor kuttyi as a Triassic-era survivour
Maleriraptor kuttyi filled the Norian stage of the Late Triassic, a time when there was extreme ecological disturbance. The animal is now confirmed to be a member of Herrerasauria, one of the earliest groups of predatory dinosaurs known to have existed.
Most notably, perhaps, the find constitutes the first definite presence of a species of herrerrasaur to survive one of the era's great mass extinctions during the Triassic period. This extinction event eliminated many tens of species of herbivores, among them the ubiquitous rhynchosaurs. Maleriraptor surviving this cataclysm speaks to its enormous ecological resilience and positions it as a vital component in the research into how some lineages survived the disasters and others did not.
This discovery was reported in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
Maleriraptor kuttyi discovery in India confirms herrerasaur existed beyond South America
Prior to this study, only four herrerasaur species had been officially documented — all South American, from Brazil and Argentina. They were all slightly earlier, ranging between 233 and 229 million years ago, and measuring between 4 and 20 feet long. Like Maleriraptor, they too were bipedal hunters, equipped for speed and agility.
Dr. Martín Ezcurra, also of the Bernardino Rivadavia Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences, the University of Birmingham, and the National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina, emphasised the importance of this discovery in expanding the herrerasaur's distribution.
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Earlier, there had been suggestions of their presence outside South America — Chindesaurus bryansmalli of North America's Chinle Formation, for example — but the Indian one is firmer evidence.
Maleriraptor kuttyi fossils reveal climate's role in species distribution
Fossils of Maleriraptor kuttyi were initially discovered in the 1980s in the Pranhita-Godavari Valley of south-central India, near the village of Annaram. The region includes fossiliferous Norian-age beds — roughly a bit younger than the Carnian, during which the first dramatic diversification of dinosaurs occurred.
Scientists speculate that during the Norian, the paleoclimate of India was much like that of southern North America. Climate similarity can be the explanation for the simultaneous development of some of the species within the two territories, such as phytosaurs, malerisaurine allokotosaurs, and now herrerasaurs. These species are absent, however, from the fossil record of southern South America, which suggests that geography and climate were a significant predictor of species distribution.
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