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Bharitalasuchus Tapani: A Carnivorous Reptile

  • 30 Jun 2021
  • 2 min read

Why in News

Recently, an international team of paleontologists has thrown light on a carnivorous reptile that lived 240 million years ago (Bharitalasuchus tapani).

  • The Team studied some of the fossil specimens stored at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata.
  • In the mid 20th century, researchers from the Institute carried out extensive studies on rocks of the Yerrapalli Formation in what is now Telangana, uncovering several fossils.

Key Points

  • About:
    • This reptile belongs to a genus and species previously unknown to science. They named it Bharitalasuchus tapani (BT).
    • BT were robust animals with big heads and large teeth, and these probably predated other smaller reptiles.
      • They were approximately the size of an adult male lion and might have been the largest predators in their ecosystems.
    • In the Telugu language, Bhari means huge, Tala means head, and Suchus is the name of the Egyptian crocodile-headed deity.
    • The species is named after paleontologist Tapan Roy Chowdhury in honour of his contribution to Indian vertebrate paleontology and especially his extensive work on the Yerrapalli Formation tetrapod fauna.
    • Further studies revealed that the reptile belonged to a family of extinct reptiles named Erythrosuchidae.
      • Erythrosuchids are known from Lower-Middle Triassic rocks of South Africa, Russia, and China, and there have been preliminary reports from the Middle Triassic Yerrapalli Formation of south-central India.

  • Yerrapalli Formation:
    • It is a Triassic (period from 250-201 million years ago) rock formation consisting primarily of mudstones that outcrops in the Pranhita–Godavari Basin in southeastern India.
    • Apart from this erythrosuchid reptile, the fossil assemblage of the Yerrapalli Formation includes many other extinct creatures such as ceratodontid lungfish, rhynchosaur and allokotosaurian.
    • However, deforestation, mining, agricultural expansion, urbanisation are gradually destroying the fossiliferous localities of India.

Source: TH

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