A New Stegosaurian Dinosaur from Upper Cretaceous Sediments of South India

The paper records the occurrence of a stegosaurian dinosaur with partial skull, tooth, sacrum, pelvic elements, armour plates and spike, from the marine Cretaceous rocks' of the Trichinopoly Group, Tamil Nadu. The bed yielding the dinosaurian fossils is assigned Coniacian age on the basis of rich ammonoid fauna which includes Kossmaticeras theobaldianum. The dinosaur is described as a new genus and species Dravidosaurus blanfordi. The stratigraphic and palaeontological significance of this report in indicating the survival of armoured dinosaurs till the close' of Mesozoic in the southern part of India is discussed.