Indosaurus

Taxobox
name = "Indosaurus"
status = fossil
fossil_range = Late Cretaceous
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Saurischia
subordo = Theropoda
infraordo = Ceratosauria
superfamilia = Abelisauroidea
familia = Abelisauridae
genus = "Indosaurus"
species = "I. matleyi"
binomial = "Indosaurus matleyi"
binomial_authority = 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"; confusingly, the dubious tooth taxon "Orthogoniosaurus" shares the same species name (but is based on different material). Some paleontologists have speculated that "Indosuchus" and "Compsosuchus" should also be included within it.

References

* [http://www.dinoruss.org/de_4/5a64ec2.htm DinoRuss]
* [http://www.users.qwest.net/~jstweet1/abelisauridae.htm Thescelosaurus!]