Name:
Kotasaurus (Greek for "Kota lizard"); pronounced KOE-ta-SORE-us
Habitat:
Woodlands of central Asia
Historical Period:
Middle Jurassic (180-175 million years ago)
Size and Weight:
About 30 feet long and 10 tons
Diet:
Plants
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Large size; relatively thin legs
About Kotasaurus:
Either a very advanced prosauropod (the early line of herbivorous dinosaurs that gave rise to the giant sauropods of the later Jurassic period) or a very early sauropod, Kotasaurus has been reconstructed from the remains of 12 separate individuals, the bones of which were found tangled together in a riverbed in India. (The most likely scenario is that a herd of Kotasaurus were drowned in a flash flood, then piled up on the bank downriver.) Today, the only place to see a Kotasaurus skeleton is at the Birla Science Museum in Hyderabad, India.
