Scientists identify a dinosaur species that survived mass extinction 200 million years ago

A small, meat-eating dinosaur from India has been given a name, and it changes the story of early predatory dinosaurs. The animal, Maleriraptor kuttyi, lived about 220 million years ago and helps bridge a gap between earlier South American species and later North American ones.

The fossils come from the Upper Maleri Formation in south-central India. Careful anatomical work shows this predator belonged to an early branch of carnivorous dinosaurs that held on after a major ecosystem shake-up.

Maleriraptor kuttyi was a predator

The work was led by Martín D. Ezcurra, Ph.D., at the University of Birmingham. His research focuses on the early evolution of dinosaurs and their close reptile relatives.

Researchers analyzed fossilized dinosaur bones from the Upper Maleri Formation that had first been reported in 1989. The bones were initially misidentified as belonging to sauropodomorph dinosaurs.

However, when the current researchers compared them with a global sample of bones from Triassic species, it became clear that these bones were from very early predatory dinosaurs.

Their results appear in a peer-reviewed study that sets Maleriraptor just outside the classic South American herrerasaurid group.

“Herrerasaurs represent the oldest radiation of predatory dinosaurs,” said Ezcurra, the lead author. This early group includes lightly built, two-legged hunters that reached between 4 and 20 feet (1.2 and 6 meters) in length.

Analyzing Maleriraptor kuttyi

The team used phylogenetic analysis, a tree-building method that tests evolutionary relationships, to see where the new species fits.

The traits point to a close tie with early predatory dinosaurs, but not inside the better known South American clade.

Key signs sit in the hips and tail. One standout is the brevis fossa, a shallow groove along the rear of the ilium – a hip bone – which is absent in Maleriraptor. This is a pattern that is shared with some of its early predatory kin.

Another clue is the pubic boot, a flared tip at the lower end of the pubis. This structure is usually important for abdominal muscle attachment, but it is weak or missing in this species.

That is unusual for its group and suggests that this feature evolved more than once among early dinosaurs.

Bones tell stories

The specimen preserves parts of the sacrum and tail, plus the right ilium and both ends of the pubis.

In Maleriraptor, the sacral centrum behind the second sacral vertebra is longer than those in front. This is a unique feature that helps separate the species from close relatives.

Its supra-acetabular crest, a reinforcing rim above the hip socket, is present but narrow. The sacral vertebrae, a backbone segment fused to the hip, shows details that match early carnivorous dinosaurs from South America while keeping its own distinct mix.

Filling a missing chapter

Maleriraptor comes from the early Norian stage, a slice of Late Triassic time that was roughly 227 to 208 million years ago. This was just after a global extinction event known as the Carnian Pluvial Episode.

This event, which occurred around 233 million years ago during the Carnian stage of the Late Triassic period, was characterized by massive volcanic eruptions and global warming. 

It led to extinctions of plants and animals, and a general reshuffling of species. That turnover wiped out many plant-eating rhynchosaurs – stocky, beaked reptiles – and opened ecological space.

“Thus, Maleriraptor kuttyi partially fills the early Norian gap in the herrerasaur record,” said Ezcurra. This helps explain how early predators persisted when key herbivores vanished.

Links across ancient continents

The ancient dinosaur fossil shows herrerasaurs survived in Gondwana, the southern supercontinent that included India, after that turnover. India’s climate at the time may hold the key.

Evidence suggests similar temperature and rainfall patterns linked India with southern North America during the Norian stage, allowing comparable animal lineups to thrive. A landmark paper on Late Triassic climate zones supports that connection.

These climate belts likely steered where certain reptiles could live. If habitats in India and southern North America felt alike, small predators with shared traits could persist in both regions.

Naming the ancient dinosaur

Naming a species is not just a formality. It fixes a reference point for testing ideas about dinosaur origins and spread. Maleriraptor anchors an Indian data point that sits between older South American herrerasaurs and younger North American forms, thus tightening the timeline.

The species name honors T. S. Kutty, who found the specimen decades ago. His patient collecting set up a result that only modern comparisons and statistics could finish. As new tools sharpen the picture, places like the Pranhita-Godavari Valley will keep filling in the Triassic story.

The fossilized bones also refine how scientists read hips and tails in Triassic predators. When a trait like the pubic boot is weak in one lineage and strong in others, it signals an evolutionary path with twists rather than a simple march.

Next steps for Maleriraptor kuttyi

The Upper Maleri Formation has already yielded early long-necked dinosaurs. Now it adds a nimble predator to the mix.

More fieldwork could connect isolated bones to skulls and limbs, letting scientists test how these animals moved and hunted.

The lead author also noted that the discovery of Maleriraptor kuttyi provides evidence that herrerasaurs survived in Gondwana during the early Norian stage, following the extinction event that wiped out the rhynchosaurs. 

The study is published in Royal Society Open Science.

Image credits: Artwork by Márcio L. Castro.

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