The holotype is partial pubis, GSI 1/54Y/76, discovered in the Kota Formation of India between 1958 and 1961 and was described as an indeterminate carnosaur in 1962.[1][2] Other material referred to the genus include dorsal vertebrae, caudal vertebrae, a tooth and a partial ischium. The type species, D. indicus, was named by Ponnala Yadagiri in 1982.[3][2]
Description
The tooth was described as being recurved and heavily compressed. The distal carina possessed small denticles.[3] The carinae were positioned centrally and the tooth was subsymmetrical labial and distal profiles.[4] The dorsal vertebrae lack pleurocoels and opisthocoelous. The caudal vertebrae bore depressions on the lateral sides. It was amphicoelous and had a keel on its ventral side. It is possible that the vertebrae belong to a sauropodomorph. The obturator fenestra of the pubis is absent, instead being an obturator notch.[5] The pubis is unique in that it points ventrally, unlike the usual forward-facing condition seen in Saurischians, giving it a mesopubic condition.[6]
In 2016 Molina-Pérez and Larramendi Dandakosaurus was estimated to be 10 meters (33 feet) in length and 2.3 tonnes (2.5 short tons) in weight.[7]
^ abYadagiri, P. (1982). Osteological studies of a carnosaurian dinosaur from the Lower Jurassic Kota Formation: Andhra Pradesh. Geological Survey of India (Progress Report for Field Season Programme 1981-1982), Regional Palaeontological Laboratories, Southern Region. 7 pp.
