Introduction:

               Scientist from Indian Institute of Technology and The Geological Survey of India have discovered a new species of   long- necked dicraeosaurid dinosaur, Tharosaurus Indicus, in the Thar desert region of Jaisalmer. These anicent fragments are believed to date back  167 million years to the middle Jurassic period, making them the oldest known Dicraeosaurid and the oldest Diplodocoid. The discovery is significant because  it challenges previous theories and shows the ancients legacy of India as a key player in supporting the birth and Flourishing the Neosauropod dinosaurs. 

    Dinosaurs were a diverse group of reptiles that lived on Earth from 230 million years ago to 65 million years ago. They varied in size from small, bird like creatures to massive giant like the long-necked Sauropods and the Fearsome Carnivorous Tyrannosaurs rex. The Cretaceous- Paleogene extinction event believed to have been caused by asteroid  impact, wiped out most non-avian dinosaurs around 65 million years ago.

       The Tharosauros Indica belongs to the family of Dicraeosaurids which were a group of long necked, herbivorous  dinosours that belong to the larger Sauropod family. they live during the late Jurassic to early Cretaceous period, roughly 170 to 140 millions years ago. 

Significance:

                 The significance of this work lies in the fact of Tharosaurus marks the first ever report of a dicraeosaurid Sauropod from India. Also this discovery supports the theory of continental drift that in the past India was a part of Gondwana and had links to South America via Madagascar and Africa. the land connections would have helped the Diplodocoid Sauropods to migrtae from India to Africa-South America.  

       This study comes up as an alternative to previous work of Sauropods which suggested that the oldest dicraeosaurid was from China(166-164 million years ago).