Page 65 - DINOSOUR ATLAS

ASIA

India u the lAndScApe todAy

India’s Pranhita and Godavari rivers flow south
to the Bay of Bengal, following channels through a
river basin, which is a depression in the Earth’s crust.
This is a vast area of low-lying ground, prone
The sTory of india’s dinosaurs begins in the Late Triassic, about 220 million to flooding during the monsoon season.
years ago, when they were just beginning to make their presence felt across
the ancient world. At this remote time, India was locked to the southern part
of Pangaea, the supercontinent made up of all Earth’s land. It was attached N C H I N A
to what would become Africa and Antarctica, after the break up of Pangaea. A
In an area of floodplains and rivers, where today’s Pranhita-Godavari river K I S T H i m a l a y a s
basin lies, crocodilelike reptiles snapped up fish, but the likes of P A New Delhi
Parasuchus were not destined to inherit the world. That honor Arabian I N D I A Kolkata
(Calcutta)
went to the dinosaurs, and India’s Alwalkeria was one of the Sea
Mumbai
Bay of
first of its kind, paving the way for the larger carnivores of (Bombay) Bengal
the Jurassic and Cretaceous. Andhra
INDIAN Pradesh
pArASUchUS d OCEAN
It looked like a crocodile, walked like a crocodile, had
jaws like a crocodile, and lived like a crocodile. Despite u SIte locAtIon
these similarities, Parasuchus was not a crocodile at all. It was
a phytosaur—a semiaquatic, meat-eating reptile India’s dinosaurs date from the Late Triassic to the
that thrived in the Triassic, but became Late Cretaceous. Their bones, trace fossils, and trackways
extinct at the end of this period. are found in a number of locations throughout the
country, as shown above.

, lUngfISh
Ceratodus fossils are found in
the area’s Late Triassic rocks.
As this lungfish lived in rivers
and lakes, it provides good
evidence for the area’s watery
environment of 220 million years ago.

Arms with
grasping hands

Hind legs,
used for both u AlwAlkerIA
walking and
chasing prey This was one of Asia’s oldest dinosaurs.
The partial remains, possibly from a
juvenile, were found in Andhra Pradesh,
southeast India. Alwalkeria was a lightly
built carnivore of the Late Triassic,
with three-toed birdlike feet.
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