Indosuchus raptorius, Huene, 1933

Paul, G. S., 1988, Predatory Dinosaurs of the World, Predatory Dinosaurs of the World, New York: Touchstone Books, pp. 323-349 : 326

GENUS INDOSUCHUS Huene, 1933

INDOSUCHUS RAPTORIUS Huene, 1933

type— GSI K27/685

time—Coniacian-Santonian of the mid Late Cretaceous

horizon and distribution—lower Lameta Group of central India

main anatomical studies—Huene, 1933; Chatterjee, 1978

Type Type SKULL skull length LENGTH— — ~750 mm TONNAGE—

~11??

Only well-preserved but isolated skull pieces have been found. I was skeptical about identifying them, but Sankar Chat- Chatterjee showed that they have D-cross-sectioned premaxillary teeth in the tip of the upper jaw, a tall, broad-tipped snout, a heavy dorsally convex maxilla, tyrannosaurian-type skull roof openings, and a narrowing of the skull bones above the orbits which suggests that binocular vision was already present. Because India was supposed to have been an isolated continent at this time, with its own unique fauna, there have been arguments that Indosuchus could not have been a tyrannosaur. But the bones say Indosuchus really was a small, heavily built, and very primitive tyrannosaur that in many ways was still like the advanced allosaurs it evolved from. Along with the allosaur Indosaurus, Indosuchus probably hunted the ankylosaurs and juvenile brontosaurs that shared its habitat.