Oldest Dicraesaurid found in India- Tharosaurus indicus

[Prehistory Resurrection]

Link to article: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/19/science/india-fossil-discovery.html?smid=url-share

[thomasw100]

Link to article: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/19/science/india-fossil-discovery.html?smid=url-share

Very interesting find. So the evidence for the presence of diplodocoids in Asia is mounting. With an estimated length of 13 m, this species would be perfect for a PNSO model in their standard 1:35 scale.

[Stegotyranno420]

Link to article: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/19/science/india-fossil-discovery.html?smid=url-share

Very interesting find. So the evidence for the presence of diplodocoids in Asia is mounting. With an estimated length of 13 m, this species would be perfect for a PNSO model in their standard 1:35 scale.

India was not asia at the time though.

[Prehistory Resurrection]

Another article I found about this find; link:https://interestingengineering.com/culture/fossils-of-167-million-year-old-dinosaur-are-the-oldest-of-its-kind

[VD231991]

Link to article: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/19/science/india-fossil-discovery.html?smid=url-share

Very interesting find. So the evidence for the presence of diplodocoids in Asia is mounting. With an estimated length of 13 m, this species would be perfect for a PNSO model in their standard 1:35 scale.

India was not asia at the time though.

The country where Tharosaurus was found used to be attached to Madagascar, Australia, and southern Africa during the Mesozoic, in contrast to Lingwulong inhabiting the East Asian portion of Laurasia. Basal and derived eusauropods have been found in the Middle Jurassic of Madagascar, so the Middle Jurassic age of Tharosaurus along with sauropod tracks from the Middle Jurassic (Bajocian-early Bathonian) Dande Sandstone in north-central Zimbabwe (Ahmed et al. 2004) and the presence of diplodocid remains from the Middle Jurassic sediments in Mexico (Rivera-Sylva and Espinosa-Arrubarena 2020) seem to indicate that neosauropods dispersed into the Americas, North Africa, Australia, and Europe from southern Africa and India during the Aalenian-Bathonian interval because East Asia was geographically separated from North America in the Jurassic and the Americas did not separate from each until the start of the Middle Jurassic. Indeed, the diplodocoid classification of "Cetiosaurus" glymptonensis from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) of the English Midlands by Upchurch and Martin (2003) could hint at the dispersal of diplodocoids from North Africa and Europe into Central and East Asia during the Middle Jurassic being semi-gradual. Still, Tharosaurus constitutes another addition to an emerging fossil record of Middle Jurassic diplodocoids, especially since the diplodocid record from the Middle Jurassic of Mexico by Rivera-Sylva and Espinosa-Arrubarena (2020) fills another gap in the fossil record of North American sauropods from the Aalenian-Callovian interval.

References:

Ahmed, A.A., Lingham-Soliar, T., and Broderick, T., 2004. Giant sauropod tracks from the Middle-Late Jurassic of Zimbabwe in close association with theropod tracks. Lethaia 37: 467–470.

Rivera-Sylva, H. E., and Espinosa-Arrubarena, L., 2020, Remains of a diplodocid (Sauropoda: Flagellicaudata) from the Otlaltepec Formation Middle Jurassic (Bathonian-Callovian) from Puebla, Mexico. Paleontologia Mexicana 9 (3): 145-150.

Upchurch, P., and Martin, J., 2003. The anatomy and taxonomy of Cetiosaurus (Saurischia, Sauropoda) from the Middle Jurassic of England. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 23 (1): 208–231. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2003)23[208:TAATOC]2.0.CO;2