Nearly 100 million-year-old Sauropod’ dinosaur fossils found in Meghalaya

Researchers of Geological Survey of India (GSI) have found fossil bone fragments of ‘sauropod’ dinosaurs as old as nearly 100 million years in a remote jungle of West Khasi Hills district in Meghalaya. In a recent field trip, the researchers have found ‘sauropod’ fossils which are of Titanosaurian origin and these are the first ever found in the northeastern region.

Sauropods are of saurischian dinosaur origin. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads, and four thick, pillar-like legs. They are notable for the enormous sizes attained by some species, and the group included the largest animals to have ever lived on land.

The Titanosaurian sauropod dinosaurs were mostly found at Gondwanan landmasses which were the southern half of the Pangaean supercontinent composed of the major continental blocks of South America, Africa, Arabia, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, India, Antarctica, and Australia 300 million years ago.

With this discovery, Meghalaya is the first state of northeastern region where researchers have found fossils of ‘sauropod’ dinosaurs.