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Bruhathkayosaurus
Bruhathkayosaurus (brew-HATH-kah-yo-SORE-us, meaning "huge bodied lizard") might have been the biggest dinosaur ever lived.
The accuracy of this claim, however, has been mired in controversy and
debate: all the estimates are based on Yadagiri and Ayyasami's 1989 paper,
which announced the find.
Their technical description is so poor that
the authors originally confidential the dinosaur
as a theropod, a member a large group of
bipedal, carnivorous dinosaurs that includes
the Tyrannosaurus; but a review of their
data in 1995 exposed that the remains actually
belonged to a sauropod (specifically, a titanosaurid),
a member of a very dissimilar group of quadrupedal,
herbivorous dinosaurs with lengthy necks
and tails, like the Brachiosaurus.
Classification
The Bruhathkayosaurus genus has only one known species, the Bruhathkayosaurus
matleyi. The species is represented by the holotype specimen GSI PAL/SR/20,
which was described by Yadagiri and Ayyasami in 1989 (not 1987, as some
sources indicate).
It was initially classified as a carnosaur (like the Allosaurus) of an unidentified (incertae sedis) family, which is a collection of theropods. In 1995 Chatterjee reclassified it as a titanosaur. The reclassification was based on the enormous size of the limbs, and the structure of the pelvis.
The original magazine described little in the way of diagnostic characteristics, and was only supported by a few line drawings. This has led to conjecture that the bones might actually be petrified wood, akin to the way the unique discoverers of the Sauroposeidon initially supposed their find to be fossilized tree trunks.
The name chose, Bruhathkayosaurus, is derived from the Hindi bruhath (huge or heavy) and kaya (body); and the Greek sauros (lizard).
Discovery
The Bruhathkayosaurus was establishing near the southern tip of India,
specifically in the Tiruchirapalli district of Tamil Nadu, to the northeast
of Kallamedu village. It was improved from the rocks of the Kallemedu
Formation, which are dated to the Maastrichtian faunal stage of the late
Cretaceous period. It lived in the direction of the end of Mesozoic era,
about 70 million years ago.
The fossilized remains include hip bones (the ilium and ischium), part of a leg bone (femur), a shin bone (tibia), a forearm (radius), and a tail bone (a vertebrae, specifically a platycoelous caudal centrum).
