Scientists discover 220-million-year-old dinosaur, Maleriraptor kuttyi, that once roamed India

Maleriraptor kuttyi lived during the Norian age of the Triassic period. (Representative Image: AI)

When a set of bones was dug up decades ago, few imagined they would change what we know about early dinosaurs. But now, those remains have a name: Maleriraptor kuttyi, a small carnivore that roamed India 220 million years ago.

A rare survivor of a mass extinction

Maleriraptor kuttyi lived during the Norian age of the Triassic period. It belonged to the Herrerasauria group — an early branch of predatory dinosaurs. Scientists have confirmed it survived a mass extinction that wiped out many herbivorous species, including the rhynchosaurs.

This makes it the first confirmed herrerasaur to outlive that catastrophic event in Gondwana. The research appears in the Royal Society Open Science journal.

Herrerasaur discovery rewrites earlier assumptions

Until now, only four herrerasaur species were known, found in Argentina and Brazil. These South American species lived between 233 and 229 million years ago. All were bipedal and measured between four and 20 feet long, according to Dr Martín Ezcurra, a palaeontologist involved in the study.

Ezcurra is associated with the Bernardino Rivadavia Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences, the University of Birmingham, and Argentina’s National Scientific and Technical Research Council.

Hints of herrerasaurs outside South America were first suggested in the 1990s. At the time, Chindesaurus bryansmalli was identified from Norian levels in North America’s Chinle Formation.

Indian fossil shows global dinosaur links

The remains of Maleriraptor kuttyi were originally collected in the 1980s from the Pranhita-Godavari Valley in south-central India. This site, near Annaram village, contains fossils from a time slightly younger than the first major dinosaur expansion during the Carnian age.

Scientists believe India's Norian-era climate was similar to southern North America’s. That may explain why herrerasaurs and other species like phytosaurs and malerisaurine allokotosaurs appeared in both regions but not in southern South America.

The study highlights how temperature and geography shaped early dinosaur evolution. With nearly forgotten fossils offering fresh clues, India's prehistoric past still holds more to tell.