Wednesday, December 09, 2015

The Giving of December. Rajasaurus

Although officially named in‭ ‬2003,‭ ‬the first confirmed remains of Rajasaurus were found in between‭ ‬1982‭ ‬and‭ ‬1984‭ ‬by Suresh Srivastava.‭ ‬However there is an outside chance that the first remains may have actually been discovered way back in‭ ‬1923‭ ‬with the naming of Lametasaurus.‭ ‬Lametasaurus though is now considered to ba a paleontological chimera and what this means is that the remains of several different dinosaurs were incorrectly interpreted as belonging to the same dinosaur.
       Rajasaurus is a carnotaurine abelisaur,‭ ‬and as such it is thought to be related to other late Cretaceous forms like Carnotaurus and Majungasaurus,‭ ‬the latter genus being thought to be a particularly close relative.‭ ‬Majungasaurus is known only from Madagascar and twenty million years before the Rajasaurus holotype specimen died,‭ ‬Madagascar was actually part of India.‭ ‬Because both Majungasaurus and Rajasaurus are both from the Later stages of the Cretaceous and both were isolated from one another,‭ ‬they must have had a common ancestor active‭ ‬twenty million years earlier when India and Madagascar were still joined.
       Rajasaurus seems to have had a low rounded horn that grew from the nasal bones of the skull,‭ ‬a similar feature also appearing on the skull of Majungasaurus.‭ ‬This is interesting since the tyrannosaurs that were the dominant theropods in the northern continents steadily lost ornamental structures on their heads as they became more advanced.‭ ‬In contrast to them the ornamentation of Rajasaurus combined with the double horns of Carnotaurus suggests that the abelisaurs seem to have developed‭ ‬head ornamentation as they grew more advanced.‭ ‬Another Indian abelisaur named Indosaurus is also thought to have possibly had a pair of horns above its eyes,‭ ‬although this remains difficult to prove since the holotype specimen has been lost.

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