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Vitakridrinda, Late CretaceousVitakri Formation, Pakistan · named 2004
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Vitakridrinda

Lived
72 to 66 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
Diet
Carnivore
Group
Theropods, Vitakrisauridae
Found in
Pakistan
Named by
Malkani 2004

Where its fossils were found

The evidence

Today

8 finds

70 million years ago

Map: C. R. Scotese, PALEOMAP

Habitat

Meandering rivers crossed floodplains, leaving sandstone in their channels and mud beyond their banks. Dinosaurs reported from these rocks include Pakisaurus, Isisaurus and Vitakrisaurus.

Field notes

About Vitakridrinda

What it was like

Vitakridrinda was named as a meat-eating dinosaur, perhaps an abelisaurid, from a few bones and teeth.

Its world

It lived about 72 to 66 million years ago, at the end of the Late Cretaceous, in what is now Pakistan. Its bones come from the Vitakri Formation.

How it was found

Malkani named it in 2004. Its bones are fragmentary, and many scientists doubt how much can be said about it.

Field gallery

More views of Vitakridrinda

Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.

Vitakridrinda in its habitat, photo 1

Lived alongside

Found in the same rock formations

A rock formation can hold fossils laid down millions of years apart, so not every animal here met Vitakridrinda.

The evidence

The science behind Vitakridrinda

Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.

From its own fossils

  • Teeth, back vertebrae and parts of thigh bones picked up from the ground surface at one site make up most of the material assigned to it, along with small skull fragments.
  • The back vertebrae have tall bodies that widen toward the bottom.
  • The thigh bones have thick walls around a hollow center and are stouter than those of Vitakrisaurus from the same rocks.

Borrowed from relatives

  • The neck, chest, hips and legs are compared with Majungasaurus, an abelisaurid known from much of its skeleton.
  • The missing snout and jaws are compared with those of Ceratosaurus.

Still unknown

  • Which of the scattered bones belong to the same animal. The thigh bones lay some distance from the teeth, and several pieces first listed as teeth were later described as claws and other bones.
  • Whether some bones assigned to it, such as a shoulder blade and a bony scute, belong instead to a crocodile relative from the same rocks.
  • Its exact place among abelisauroids, and the shape of its complete skull and body.

Discovery timeline

  1. 2004Named itMalkani
  2. 2010Full descriptionSadiq Malkani
  3. 2020RedescriptionMalkani
  4. 2021RedescriptionMalkani
  5. 2025RedescriptionMalkani

Key papers

The research behind what we know of Vitakridrinda

Close relatives

Other members of Vitakrisauridae

Sources: Wikidata