Dino of the Week: Kotasaurus

Type Species: Kotasaurus yamanpalliensis

Classification: Dinosauria - Saurischia – Sauropoda - Gravisauria - Eusauropoda

Time Period: Early Jurassic

Location: India

Diet: Herbivore

The thirty-foot-long and 2.5-ton Kotasaurus was one of the earliest known sauropods. It shared its habitat with another sauropod, Barapasaurus. The fossilized remains of twelve individuals – lacking, unfortunately, their skulls (though two teeth have been recovered!) – were discovered in India. The remains were jumbled together in what had been a Jurassic riverbed, and scientists speculate that the herd drowned in a flash flood and was washed to a bend in the river where they were deposited en masse. Only the heaviest bones remained to be fossilized, for after the floodwaters receded, their carcasses would’ve been set upon by scavengers. The absence of skulls isn’t surprising, since skulls are very loosely connected to the spine and thus easily wrenched free and taken to other locations for eating. Kotasaurus had a heavy body, a long neck and tail, columnar limbs, spoon-shaped teeth, and a horizontal posture.