A newly discovered species fills the temporal gap between South American Herrerasaurus dinosaurs and their younger relatives in North America.
Reconstructing the life of Maleriraptor Kuttyi with the Unayasaurid Sauropodomorph Jaklapallisaurus asymmetric, both from the Norian Upper Maleri Formation in southern central India. Image credit: Márcio L. Castro.
Maleriraptor Kuttyi existed in present-day India during the Norian period of the Triassic, approximately 220 million years ago.
These ancient reptiles are part of the Herrerasauria, a small to medium-sized group of carnivorous animals that appeared in the fossil record around 228 million years ago and went extinct by the end of the Triassic period.
“Herrerasaurus is a representative of the earliest radiation of predatory dinosaurs,” stated Dr. Martin Ezcala, a paleontologist from the University of Birmingham and the Concejo Nacional de Investigative Sciences, alongside his museum colleagues.
“Previously, their records were predominantly limited to four nominal species found in the Norian Formation in the central area of Karnia in northwestern Argentina and the lower section of the Candelaria sequence in southern Brazil (dated 233-229 million years ago).”
“These species are bipedal, with a total length ranging from 1.2 to 6 m (3.9 to 19.7 feet).”
In particular, Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis stands out as the most abundant dinosaur in the lower third of the stratigraphic sequence of the Ischigualasto Formation within the region.
“The possibility of Herrerasaurus existing outside South America was first suggested in the mid-1990s with the discovery of Chindesaurus bryansmalli, from the Norian levels of the mid-upper Sinru formation in North America.”
Fossil materials of Maleriraptor Kuttyi were collected over 40 years ago from the Upper Maleri Formation in the Pramhitagodabari Valley, located about 1 km south of Anamam village in southern India.
“The Upper Maleri Formation where Maleriraptor Kuttyi was found is particularly significant in illuminating the early evolution of dinosaurs, as it retains a collection of dinosaurs that are slightly younger than the earliest radiation in Karnia,” remarked the paleontologist.
According to the research team, Maleriraptor Kuttyi provides the first evidence that Herrerasaurus also survived in Gondwana, related to the turnover of tetrapods in the early Norian period (227-220 million years ago), coinciding with the global extinction of a group of herbivorous alxaurmorph reptiles known as Linchaurus.
“The discovery of Maleriraptor Kuttyi indicates that Herrerasaurus persisted at least during the early Norians after the extinction event that wiped out Rinchaurus.”
“The presence of Herrerasaurus in the early Norians of India might be climatically influenced, as it suggests that India experienced different average annual temperatures and precipitation compared to North America’s Norian regions.”
“A more comparable paleoclimate between India and Southern North America might explain the presence of fauna components that are uncommon or absent in southern South America, such as phytosaurs, Herrerasaurus, Protopycnosaurus, and Marellisaurus alocotosaurus.”
“The deposition of the Upper Maleri Formation occurred shortly after the extinction event affecting Linchaurus, which is well-documented in the lower Maleri Formation.”
“The faunistic similarity between the Upper Maleri Formation and the upper section of the Brazilian Santa Maria Supersequence suggests they share a similar age, dating back to approximately 225 million years, which includes the presence of Unayasaurids.”
Thus, Maleriraptor Kuttyi helps bridge the early Norian gaps in the Herrerasaurus record.
The team’s paper has been published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.
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Martín D. Ezcurra et al. 2025. A new Herrerasaurus dinosaur from the Upper Triassic Upper Marelli Formation in southern India. R. Soc. Open SCI 12(5): 250081; doi: 10.1098/rsos.250081
Source: www.sci.news
