Jaklapallisaurus

Phylogeny: Dinosauria > Saurischia > Sauropodomorpha > Plateosauria > Unaysauridae

Overview: Jaklapallisaurus was a fairly small and basal sauropodomorph that lived in what is today central India. Similar to most other non-sauropod sauropodomorphs, it was a bipedal creature, its hands free to forage for food or defend itself with its claws. Even with its claws, at maybe two to three meters long, Jaklapallisaurus was probably easy prey for large-bodied predators. The genus is based on relatively limited fossils, consisting of pieces of vertebrae, the limbs and pelvis, but it may be possible to restore its life appearance if we know how to classify it. Phylogenetic studies usually classify Jaklapallisaurus as a member of the family Unaysauridae, making Unaysaurus from Brazil a close relative, along with a genus called Macrocollum. Some studies, however, find Unaysaurus to be a possible plateosaurid. Accordingly, the Unaysauridae may not be a unified, valid family.

Confirmed fossils belonging to the genus Jaklapallisaurus are known from India’s Maleri Formation, specifically within its upper layers. This dates the animal to around two hundred and three million years ago, or towards the end of the Late Triassic. Dinosaurs were just on the cusp of diversifying, with some quadrupedal sauropodomorphs already having evolved by that point. The bipedal forms, like Jaklapallisaurus, would persist a little ways into the Early Jurassic. Some fossil material found in the Dharmaram Formation, consisting of a partial femur, may belong to this dinosaur, but there are some researchers who caution classifying it as such based on such limited remains. Jaklapallisaurus was formally described as a genus in 2011 by a team of Argentine and Indian scientists. The generic name of the creature refers to the village of Jaklapalli, located close to where it was discovered.