[ Fossilised caudal vertebrae of Tharosaurus indicus. ]
"A team of researchers from India has discovered fossils of a new dicraeosaurid from the Indian city of Jaisalmer in western India. These fossils, dating back to 167 million years, include bones separated at the joints but associated with specimens of the central body bones spread over an area of 270 square feet ( 25- square meters). The dicraeosaurid, called Tharosaurus Indicus in reference to the Thar desert where the fossils were found, is the first ever discovered in India and the oldest in the world’s fossil record. "The significance of this discovery rests in its antiquity," said Sunil Bajpai, a vertebrate paleontologist at the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee and an author of the study, in an interview with Economic Times. The team of five began their work in 2018 when they discovered these fossils. The team acknowledged that the material in their possession is fragmentary, and there is a possibility that as more evidence is recovered, there might be a change in their taxonomic attribution; the fact remains that Tharosaurus Indicus currently is the oldest known diplodocoid. “...the discovery of Tharosaurus makes India a major center for not only diplodocoid but neosauropod radiation,” said the authors in the study. The discovery of Tharosaurus suggests that India played a significant role in the emergence and diversification of neosauropods, a group of long-necked vegetarian dinosaurs that thrived as the largest land animals, explained Debajit Datta, co-author of the study, in an interview with The New York Times."
Read more: "Fossils of 167-million-year-old dinosaur are the oldest of its kind" by Sejal Sharma.