Lamplughsaura
Name:
Lamplughsaura
(Lamplugh’s lizard).
Phonetic: Lam-plu-sore-ah.
Named By: T. S. Kutty, S. Chatterjee, P.
M. Galton and P. Upchurch - 2007.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Sauropodomorpha, Sauropoda?
Species: L. dharmaramensis
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: About 10 meters long.
Known locations: India - Dharmaram Formation.
Time period: Sinemurian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Partial post cranial
skeletons of several individuals.
Living
in India during the early Jurassic, the dinosaur Lamplughsaura
has
been the source of some head scratching amongst palaeontologists. The
two main options at the moment are that either Lamplughsaura
represents
a very advanced sauropodomorph,
or a primitive sauropod
dinosaur.
What can be established however is that Lamplughsaura
does represent a
transitional form that illustrates the link between sauropodomorph
ancestors and sauropod descendents. However, at the time of writing
transitional forms such as Lamplughsaura only exist
in small numbers,
and there is still much to be learnt before a more confident taxonomic
assignment can be made about Lamplughsaura.
Lamplughsaura
was named in honour of Pamela Lamplugh, the founder of the Indian
Statistical Institute (which itself has a dinosaur called Isisaurus
named after it), and because Pamela Lamplugh is a woman, the
feminine ‘saura' was chosen for the ending of the named instead of
the more usual ‘saurus', which is masculine. The type species
name dharmaramensis more simply means ‘from Dharmaram’, a
reference to the Dharmaram Formation where the holotype fossils were
discovered.
Further reading
- Basal sauropodomorphs (Dinosauria, Saurischia) from the Lower
Jurassic of India: their anatomy and relationships. - Journal of
Paleontology 81(6):1552-1574. - T. S. Kutty, S.
Chatterjee, P. M. Galton and P. Upchurch - 2007.
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