New Dinosaur Species Found in India

The part I find intriguing is 'The cause of the dinosaurs' extinction is still debated by scientists.' (It's certainly debated on this ng. But I wonder how discovery of this species 'may provide crucial clues.' Dino embryos may have suffocated during volcanic eruptions?!)

Also intriguing, 'People don't realize dinosaurs are the only large-bodied animal that lived, evolved and died at a time when all continents were united.' I didn't realize that. (But I'm not a scientist.)

NEW DINOSAUR SPECIES FOUND IN INDIA Wed Aug 13, 9:04 PM ET Add Science - AP to My Yahoo!

By RAMOLA TALWAR BADAM, Associated Press Writer

BOMBAY, India - U.S. and Indian scientists said Wednesday they have discovered a new carnivorous dinosaur species in India after finding bones in the western part of the country.

The new dinosaur species was named Rajasaurus narmadensis, or 'Regal reptile from the Narmada,' after the Narmada River region where the bones were found.

The dinosaurs were between 25-30 feet long, had a horn above their

They preyed on long-necked herbivorous dinosaurs on the Indian subcontinent during the Cretaceous Period at the end of the dinosaur age, 65 million years ago.

'It's fabulous to be able to see this dinosaur which lived as the age of dinosaurs came to a close,' said Paul Sereno, a paleontologist at the University of Chicago. 'It was a significant predator that was related to species on continental Africa, Madagascar and South America.'

Working with Indian scientists, Sereno and paleontologist Jeff Wilson of the University of Michigan reconstructed the dinosaur skull in a project funded partly by the National Geographic (news - web sites) Society.

A model of the assembled skull was presented Wednesday by the American scientists to their counterparts from Punjab University in northern India and the Geological Survey of India during a Bombay news conference.

Scientists said they hope the discovery will help explain the extinction of the dinosaurs and the shifting of the continents - how India separated from Africa, Madagascar, Australia and Antarctica and collided with Asia.

The dinosaur bones were discovered during the past 18 years by Indian scientists Suresh Srivastava of the Geological Survey of India and Ashok Sahni, a paleontologist at Punjab University.

When the bones were examined, 'we realized we had a partial skeleton of

The scientists said they believe the Rajasaurus roamed the Southern Hemisphere land masses of present-day Madagascar, Africa and South America.

'People don't realize dinosaurs are the only large-bodied animal that lived, evolved and died at a time when all continents were united,'

The cause of the dinosaurs' extinction is still debated by scientists.

India has seen quite a few paleontological discoveries recently.

In 1997, villagers discovered about 300 fossilized dinosaur eggs in Pisdura, 440 miles northeast of Bombay, that Indian scientists said were laid by four-legged, long-necked vegetarian creatures.

Indian scientists said the dinosaur embryos in the eggs may have suffocated during volcanic eruptions.

Usually, when a press release says that a discovery may shed some light on the extinction of dinosaurs, or whether they were warm-blooded, it actually means 'we don't think you'll find this interesting so we'll try and make it controversial.' In this case, however, a dinosaur from the end-Cretaceous of India may actually prove informative. The reason is that for decades, paleontologists have argued about whether the Deccan Traps played a role in dinosaur extinction. Presence of a dinosaur in that place at that time would, on the face of it, argue against a strong tie. However, I'll withhold any further pronouncements until I've seen Sereno's article in the peer-reviewed

Well, it *is* an extinct dinosaur isn't it? Unless it was right on top of the Traps, I'm not sure how far this conclusion can be supported - plenty of living animals survive around areas of high vulcanism, and presuming geological evidence strongly indicates that the Traps were active at during the late Cretaceous a dinosaur discovery in the region is rather circumstantial evidence to the contrary. As you say, though, only time will tell - either the peer-reviewed article or future research on the environment in which the fossil was preserved.

Philip Bowles

Then you are smarter than the reporter who wrote the story, because it is not true. I don't know what Sereno actually said, but he was terribly misquoted. The continents had achieved their approximate configuration, if not location, by 200 million years ago.

Perhaps Sereno actually commented that dinosaurs originated when the continents were united, and evolved with the continental boundaries. Reporters are generally not smart enough to report scientific stories.

Not unusual for someone to be technically smarter than a reporter. Especially one from the Washington Post.

Especially true with 'Rajasaurus' which has not yet been published. I wish they wouldn't report it until the paper was being released, I really feel like the quality of information is greatly lost in them doing so.