In Depth
Alwalkeria was originally named in 1986 as Walkeria, however the genus name Walkeria was later found to be as preoccupied as it had already been used to name a bryozoan (a kind of tiny aquatic invertebrate). This necessited a revision to the name since naming priority is always given to the first creature to be named, hence the alteration to Alwalkeria in 1994.
Due to the fragmentary and incompleteness of the Alwalkeria holotype, not a lot is known for certain about this dinosaur. Alwalkeria does seem to be a saurischian (lizard hipped) dinosaur and possibly a primitive theropod, but there are not enough known features to be certain of this. The teeth in the known portions of the mouth are unserrated and are also heterodont, in that they vary from one another. This makes it hard to currently ascertain if Alwalkeria was a meat eater or a plant eater, possibly even being both. There is a gap between the teeth of the maxilla and pre-maxilla though, a feature similar to another dinosaur genus called Eoraptor.
Further Reading
– A new theropod dinosaur from India with remarks on the Gondwana-Laurasia connection in the Late Cretaceous, Sankar Chatterje - 1987. – Alwalkeria (Theropoda) and Morturneria (Plesiosauria), new names for preoccupied Walkeria Chatterjee, 1987 and Turneria Chatterjee and Small, 1989, Sankar Chatterjee & Ben Creisler - 1994.
