Alwalkeria
Name:
Alwalkeria
(in honour of ‘Alick Walker’).
Phonetic: Al-wal-ke-re-ah.
Named By: Sankar Chatterjee & Ben
Creisler. - 1994 (Originally named Walkeria by Chatterjee in
1986).
Synonyms: Walkeria maleriensis
(refer to
text for detail).
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Theropoda?
Species: A. maleriensis
(type).
Diet: Omnivore?
Size: Uncertain.
Known locations: India, Andhra Pradesh -
Maleri Formation.
Time period: Carnian to Norian of the Triassic.
Fossil representation: Fragmentary remains including
partial skull, mandible, femur, astragalus (ankle bone),
and 28 assorted vertebrae.
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.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Random favourites
 |
 |
 |