The Kolkata head-quartered Geological Survey of India (GSI) have found in their precincts the lone fossilised remains of a dinosaur, the only specimen of this type, 134 years after going missing.
These remains are of a particular dinosaur exhumed in the 19th century.
Lieutenant-Colonel W.H. Sleeman of the British Army is said to have discovered the fossil near Jabalpur in 1828 and it went missing in 1877, after going to different hands. No clue was available in this regard. It was only when GSI scientists got an opportunity to address at an international study on dinosaurs at GSI HQ in Kolkata two months ago, that the discovery was possible.
GSI sources put the specimen as of ‘Titanosaur Indicus’. It is said to be holotype, implying ‘it is the only specimen based on which a new group of animals is named.’
The discovery in 1828 was four years later when the remains of the first dinosaur, ‘Meg-losaurus’ was discovered in 1824. It was 14 years later when ‘Dinosauria’ was invented in 1842.
The original specimen lying with the Mesozoic vertebrate fossil collection of Richard Lydekker, has been rediscovered by Dr. D.M. Mohabey and Dr. Subhasis Sen