Rajasaurus narmadensis
"regal dinosaur from the Narmada"

Rajasaurus
Illustration © M. Hallet

Type: theropod

Age: 65 million years old

Length: 30 feet

Height at hip: 8 feet

Discovery site: Western India

Photo © Wendy Taylor

Illustration © C. Abraczinskas

Expedition and Research Team

Panjab University Ashok Sahni^1 Ashu Khosla^1 Vivesh Kapur*	Geological Survey of India D. K. Bhatt¹ Suresh Srivastava
University of Michigan Jeff Wilson^1 Monica Wilson	University of Chicago Paul C. Sereno^*1
Washington, D.C. Eric Love*	Musee nationale d'histoire naturelle, Paris Didier Dutheil*
University of California, Berkeley Greg Wilson*

*=2001 India Expedition Team Members
¹=scientific publication co-authors

Notes:

Rajasaurus was a stocky, carnivorous dinosaur with a head crest that lived at the end of the dinosaur era on India. The 30-foot-long predator would have pursued a diet that included the long-necked sauropod dinosaurs that roamed western India. In 1983, Suresh Srivastava of the Geological Survey of India and Ashok Sahni of Panjab University led a major expedition to the Narmada region of India and collected hundreds of bones. Rajasaurus was pieced together from the collection during a 2001 joint-Indian American research project led by Jeff Wilson, Paul Sereno, Srivastava and Sahni. The discovery represents the first skull ever assembled of a dinosaur of any kind in India.

Press Releases:

National Geographic Press Release

UC Dinosaur Hunter IDs New Species
Chicago Sun Times

India's Rajasaurus has story very, very long in the telling
Chicago Tribune

India Team Links

Jeff Wilson’s Web site
Geological Survey of India
Panjab University

Rajasaurus narmadensis "regal dinosaur from the Narmada"

Rajasaurus narmadensis
"regal dinosaur from the Narmada"