Indosaurus
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Extinct (fossil)
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| Indosaurus matleyi Matley & Von Huene, 1933 |
Indosaurus (meaning "Indian lizard") is a genus of theropod dinosaur in what is now India. It lived approximately 69 million years ago, in the Maastrichtian division of the Late Cretaceous. It weighed roughly 700 kg (1540 lb).
The fossil evidence from Jabalpur, India, includes a partial skull of unusual thickness, and other parts of the skeleton. The cranium suggests that Indosaurus may have had horns above its eyes, although all the fossil evidence has since been lost. Indosaurus may have been related to the unusual South American dinosaur, Carnotaurus. If this is the case then India had not been a separate continent for the previous 100 million years, as many paleontologists had thought. It is possible instead that the two land masses were connected intermittently by land bridges, allowing dinosaurs from both areas to migrate.
The type species, I. matleyi, was named by von Huene and Matley in 1933. This species now also includes Megalosaurus matleyi and Orthogoniosaurus matleyi. Some paleontologists have speculated that Indosuchus and Compsosuchus should also be included within it.
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