In yet another new discovery, Indian scientists from IIT-Roorkee and the Geological Survey of India (GSI) have found the oldest fossil remains of a long-necked, plant-eating dicraeosaurid dinosaur in Rajasthan state's Jaisalmer city.
According to a study published in an international journal, Scientific Reports by Nature Publishers, the rock where the fossil remains were found is 167 million years old and belong to a completely new species of dicraeosaurid dinosaur that has remained a mystery to scientists until now.
The newly discovered species has been named Tharosaurus indicus, with the first name referring to the Thar Desert where the fossils were found, and the second after its country of origin.
A professor of vertebrate paleontology at IIT Roorkee's Earth Sciences Department, Sunil Bajpai, carried out detailed research on the fossils for around five years along with his colleague Debajit Datta, a national postdoctoral fellow.
In 2018, the GSI initiated a fossil exploration and excavation programme in the Middle Jurassic rocks in Jaisalmer city of Rajasthan.
Bajpai said the newly discovered plant-eating dinosaur is the oldest known dicraeosaurid. It is also the oldest diplodocoid, which is the broader group of dinosaur species including dicraeosaurids and sauropods.