Barapasaurus
| Barapasaurus Temporal range: Early Jurassic
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| Genus: | Barapasaurus Jain, Kutty, Roy-Chowdhury, and Chatterjee, 1975
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B. tagorei Jain et al., 1975 (type) | |
Barapasaurus (Template:PronEng bah-RAH-pah-sawr-us) meaning 'big-legged lizard', referring to the size of its leg bone (Bengali bara meaning 'big' and pa meaning 'leg' plus Greek sauros meaning 'lizard') is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from Early Jurassic rocks of India.
Description
Barapasaurus is of interest because it one of the earliest known sauropod, dating from the early Jurassic period — more precisely the Toarcian age, about 189.6 to 176.5 million years ago. This is evident in the unspecialized nature of its form. Later sauropods like Brachiosaurus developed their own ecological niches and feeding strategies. However, Barapasaurus was something of an "all-purpose" dinosaur. For example, later sauropods developed hollow vertebrae, as a weight-saving measure. Barapasaurus vertebrae, on the other hand, were almost solid, with only the earliest hints of hollowing. (See also: Camarasaurus.)
Despite its early place in dinosaur history, Barapasaurus reached a length of about 18 metres (59 ft), and weighed about 48 tonnes (53 short tons). Its height to the hip was approximately 5.5 metres (18 ft).
Environment
Like all sauropods, Barapasaurus was a herbivore. However, no skull has yet been recovered and so its exact diet has not been determined. A few lone teeth are known but not sufficient to make judgments on diet.
Classification
Barapasaurus is included in Vulcanodontidae rather than, as was previously the case, the Cetiosauridae, another family in Sauropoda. This classification is unconfirmed since insufficient work has been done on the skeletons. The description is justified by the narrow sacrum (the hip vertebrae), which is a characteristic of vulcanodontids. However, the back vertebrae display features shared with Cetiosauridae, such as a high neural arch above the vertebral foramen.
Currently the only known species is the original B. tagorsi.
Discovery
The first bones of Barapasaurus were recovered in India in 1960. However, it was not until 1975 that this recovery was made the type specimen, and the official description published by Jain, Kutty, Roy-Chowdhury and Chatterjee of Calcutta.
Since then, five additional skeletons have been recovered from the Godavari Valley in southern India. However, none of these included the skull or feet, and little work has yet been published regarding these discoveries.
