New dinosaur species named after Indian origin scientist

A previously unknown species of dinosaurs found in the Gobi desert has been named after an Indian-origin scientist who made available a virtually complete skull in his possession for scientific scrutiny.

A previously unknown species of dinosaurs found in the Gobi desert has been named after an Indian-origin scientist who made available a virtually complete skull in his possession for scientific scrutiny.

American paleontologists Clifford Miles and Clark Miles, who studied the skull with a bull-like appearance with flared nostrils, described it as belonging to a new genus and species of ankylosaurid.

Ankylosaurids are armoured dinosaurs that evolved about 125 million years ago and were found in North America, East Asia and Europe.

Indian-origin scientist VS Ramachandran bought the skull from a Japanese fossil collector and displayed it at the Victor Valley Museum, California.

The US scientists at the Western Paleontological Laboratories in Utah named the new species as Minotaurasaurus Ramachandrani, after Ramachandran made the skull available to them.

Miles reported their findings in the latest issue of Indian research journal Current Science.

The generic name 'Minotaurasaurus' means 'man-bull reptile' in Latin. The species has been named so because of the bull-like appearance of the skull which was found in the Gobi desert.