The Indian fossil specimen was not studied earlier as a result of it was not as full because the specimens present in different nations
In the mid twentieth century, researchers from the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, carried out intensive research on rocks of the Yerrapalli Formation in what’s now Telangana, uncovering a number of fossils. By learning a few of these specimens saved on the Institute, a world crew has now thrown mild on a carnivorous reptile that lived 240 million years ago.
This reptile belongs to a genus and species beforehand unknown to science. They named it Bharitalasuchus tapani. In the Telugu language, Bhari means large, Tala means head, and Suchus is the title of the Egyptian crocodile-headed deity. The species is called after paleontologist Tapan Roy Chowdhury in honour of his contribution to Indian vertebrate paleontology and particularly his intensive work on the Yerrapalli Formation tetrapod fauna.
Further research revealed that the reptile belonged to a household of extinct reptiles named Erythrosuchidae. “A precise identification had not been possible earlier because the family was not known from other examples in India. It was neglected because the fossil specimen was not as complete as those of other erythrosuchids from other countries. Also, because the few palaeontologists with expertise in the family had not examined the fossil or carried out the detailed comparative work needed,” explains David Gower from the Natural History Museum London, in an e mail to The Hindu. He is among the authors of the paper lately revealed in Ameghiniana.
The crew notes that Bharitalasuchus tapani had been strong animals with large heads and enormous tooth, and these in all probability predated different smaller reptiles. They had been roughly the dimensions of an grownup male lion and may need been the biggest predators of their ecosystems.
“The first Erythrosuchidae remains were discovered in South Africa in 1905 and more were found in China and Russia. The South African one is about 245 million years old, while the ones from China and Russia are around 240 million years old. So the Indian one is one of the youngest fossil records we have of an erythrosuchid,” explains the primary writer Martin D. Ezcurra from the Argentinian Museum of Natural Sciences in Buenos Aires.
Biological interplay
He provides: “It was surprising to find tooth marks in the first trunk vertebra of Bharitalasuchus, indicating that a smaller animal took a bite probably after the death of the specimen. This is a nice example of evidence of biological interaction that occurred 240 million years ago.” One of the authors Saswati Bandyopadhyay from the Indian Statistical Institute provides: “Apart from this erythrosuchid reptile, the fossil assemblage of the Yerrapalli Formation includes many other extinct creatures such as ceratodontid lungfish, rhynchosaur and allokotosaurian.”
She provides that future exploration and excavation on this unit are necessary in findingnew fossils. “Unfortunately, deforestation, mining, agricultural expansion, urbanisation are gradually destroying the fossiliferous localities of India, and the Yerrapalli Formation of the Pranhita-Godavari Basin is not an exception,” she concludes.
