Titanosaurus Pronunciation

Fun Facts

• ✓Titanosaurus was named in 1877 by British paleontologist Richard Lydekker, making it one of the earliest dinosaurs ever formally described from the Indian subcontinent.
• ✓The original fossils assigned to Titanosaurus indicus consist of just a few vertebrae and a partial femur, which is why scientists today call it a 'nomen dubium,' meaning a name of uncertain standing.
• ✓Because Titanosaurus was named so early and from such incomplete material, dozens of sauropod species from around the world were incorrectly lumped under the Titanosaurus name during the 1800s and 1900s, creating enormous confusion for paleontologists.
• ✓The group of giant sauropods called Titanosauria, which includes some of the largest animals to ever walk Earth like Patagotitan, was named after Titanosaurus itself, even though the original Titanosaurus is now considered too fragmentary to properly define the group.
• ✓Fossil fragments attributed to Titanosaurus were found in the Lameta Formation of India, the same rock unit that also preserves the carnivore Rajasaurus, a large abelisaurid dinosaur that shared the same Late Cretaceous Indian ecosystem.