Sankar Chatterjee
Encyclopedia
Sankar Chatterjee is a paleontologist
Paleontology
Paleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...

, and is the Paul W. Horn Professor of Geosciences
Earth science
Earth science is an all-embracing term for the sciences related to the planet Earth. It is arguably a special case in planetary science, the Earth being the only known life-bearing planet. There are both reductionist and holistic approaches to Earth sciences...

 at Texas Tech University
Texas Tech University
Texas Tech University, often referred to as Texas Tech or TTU, is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and originally known as Texas Technological College, it is the leading institution of the Texas Tech University System and has the...

 and Curator of Paleontology at the Museum of Texas Tech University
Museum of Texas Tech University
The Museum of Texas Tech University is part of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. It is made up of the main museum building, the Moody Planetarium, the Natural Science Research Laboratory, the research and educational elements of the Lubbock Lake Landmark, and the Val Verde County research...

. He earned his Ph. D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 from the University of Calcutta
University of Calcutta
The University of Calcutta is a public university located in the city of Kolkata , India, founded on 24 January 1857...

 in 1970 and was a Post-doctoral Fellow at the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...

 from 1977-1978.

Dr. Chatterjee's has focused on the origin, evolution, functional anatomy, and systematics of Mesozoic
Mesozoic
The Mesozoic era is an interval of geological time from about 250 million years ago to about 65 million years ago. It is often referred to as the age of reptiles because reptiles, namely dinosaurs, were the dominant terrestrial and marine vertebrates of the time...

 vertebrates, including basal archosaur
Archosaur
Archosaurs are a group of diapsid amniotes whose living representatives consist of modern birds and crocodilians. This group also includes all extinct non-avian dinosaurs, many extinct crocodilian relatives, and pterosaurs. Archosauria, the archosaur clade, is a crown group that includes the most...

s, dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

s, pterosaur
Pterosaur
Pterosaurs were flying reptiles of the clade or order Pterosauria. They existed from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous Period . Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved powered flight...

s, and bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

s. He has researched Late Triassic
Late Triassic
The Late Triassic is in the geologic timescale the third and final of three epochs of the Triassic period. The corresponding series is known as the Upper Triassic. In the past it was sometimes called the Keuper, after a German lithostratigraphic group that has a roughly corresponding age...

 reptiles in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, such as phytosaur
Phytosaur
Phytosaurs are an extinct group of large semi-aquatic Late Triassic archosaurs. Phytosaurs belong to the family Phytosauridae and the order Phytosauria. They were long-snouted and heavily armoured, bearing a remarkable resemblance to modern crocodiles in size, appearance, and lifestyle, an example...

s, rhynchosaur
Rhynchosaur
Rhynchosaurs were a group of Triassic diapsid reptiles related to the archosaurs.-Description:Rhynchosaurs were herbivores, and at times abundant , with stocky bodies and a powerful beak...

s, and prolacertiformes
Prolacertiformes
Prolacertiformes were an order of archosauromorph reptiles that lived during the Permian and Triassic Periods...

. He is best known for his work on vertebrates recovered in the 1980s from the Post Quarry in the Late Triassic Cooper Canyon Formation
Cooper Canyon Formation
-Vertebrate fauna:...

 (Dockum Group
Dockum Group
The Dockum is a Late Triassic geologic group found primarily on the Llano Estacado of western Texas and eastern New Mexico with minor exposures in southwestern Kansas, eastern Colorado, and Oklahoma panhandle. The Dockum reaches a maximum thickness of slightly over 650 m but is usually much...

) of West Texas
West Texas
West Texas is a vernacular term applied to a region in the southwestern quadrant of the United States that primarily encompasses the arid and semi-arid lands in the western portion of the state of Texas....

. The material includes the large rauisuchian Postosuchus
Postosuchus
Postosuchus, meaning "crocodile from Post ", was a basal archosaur that lived in what is now North America during the middle through to the late Triassic period...

, which was named for the nearby town of Post
Post, Texas
Post is a city in and the county seat of Garza County, Texas, United States. The population was 3,708 at the 2000 census.There are many ranchers and civic boosters in Garza County, among them Giles McCrary, a former mayor who operates the OS Museum, a hybrid of exhibits from both the American West...

. It also included controversial specimens Chatterjee identified as being avian (Protoavis
Protoavis
Protoavis is a problematic taxon of archosaurian known from fragmentary remains from Late Triassic Norian stage deposits near Post, Texas. Much controversy remains over the animal, and there are many different interpretations of what Protoavis actually is...

). The identification of these specimens as avian would push back the origin of birds by at least 75 million years.

In 2008, Chatterjee and Rick Lind designed a 30-inch unmanned aerial vehicle
Unmanned aerial vehicle
An unmanned aerial vehicle , also known as a unmanned aircraft system , remotely piloted aircraft or unmanned aircraft, is a machine which functions either by the remote control of a navigator or pilot or autonomously, that is, as a self-directing entity...

 with a large, thin rudder
Rudder
A rudder is a device used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft or other conveyance that moves through a medium . On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw and p-factor and is not the primary control used to turn the airplane...

 inspired by the crest of Tupandactylus
Tupandactylus
Tupandactylus is a genus of tapejarid pterodactyloid pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous Crato Formation of Brazil. It is notable for its large cranial crest, composed partly of bone and partly of soft tissue...

.

Genera named

Name Year Status Coauthor(s) Notes Images
  • Alwalkeria
    Alwalkeria
    Alwalkeria is a genus of basal saurischian dinosaur from the Late Triassic of India. It was a small bipedal omnivore.This dinosaur was originally named Walkeria maleriensis by Sankar Chatterjee in 1987, in honor of famous British paleontologist Alick Walker and the Maleri Formation, in which its...

  • 1994
    1994 in paleontology
    -Dinosaurs:* Aff. Rebbachisaurus gastroliths documented.* The "Talkeetna Mountains Hadrosaur" specimen was discovered in a quarry being excavated for road material. The quarry is near the Glenn Highway, approximately 150 miles northeast of Anchorage...

  • Valid taxon.
  • Creisler.


    • Barapasaurus
      Barapasaurus
      Barapasaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from Early Jurassic rocks of India. The specific name for its only species, B. tagorei, means 'Tagore's', which honors Bengali poet, writer, painter, and musician Rabindranath Tagore.-Description:...

  • 1975
    1975 in paleontology
    -Newly named dinosaurs:Data courtesy of George Olshevsky's dinosaur genera list and Dr. Jeremy Montague's dinosaur genus database.-New taxa:-New taxa:...

  • Valid taxon.
  • Jain
  • Kutty
  • Roy-Chowdhury
  • Jaklapallisaurus
    Jaklapallisaurus
    Jaklapallisaurus is a genus of herbivore plateosaurian sauropodomorph dinosaur. It is a plateosaurid which lived during the Late Triassic period in what is now Andhra Pradesh, central India...

  • 2011
    2011 in paleontology
    -Lobopods:-Arachnids:-Insects:-Newly named jawless vertebrates:-Newly named acanthodian:-Newly named cartilaginous fishes:-Newly named bony fishes:-Newly named lepospondyls:-Newly named temnospondyls:-Newly named lissamphibians:...

  • Valid taxon.
  • Fernando E. Novas
    Fernando Novas
    Fernando Emilio Novas is an Argentine paleontologist working for the Comparative Anatomy Department of the Bernardino Rivadavia Natural History Argentine Museum in Buenos Aires...

  • Martin D. Ezcurra
  • Kutty
  • Lamplughsaura
    Lamplughsaura
    Lamplughsaura is a genus of saurischian dinosaur from the Sinemurian-age Dharmaram Formation of India, between 196 to 190 million years ago. The type species is L...

  • 2007
    2007 in paleontology
    -newly named:-New taxa:-Newly named non-avian dinosaurs:Data courtesy of George Olshevky's dinosaur genera list.-Newly named birds:-New papers:...

  • Valid taxon.
  • Kutty
  • Peter Galton
    Peter Galton
    Peter M. Galton is a British vertebrate paleontologist working in America, who has to date written or co-written about a hundred papers in scientific journals or chapters in paleontology textbooks, especially on ornithischian and prosauropod dinosaurs.With Robert Bakker in a joint article...

  • Upchurch
  • Nambalia
    Nambalia
    Nambalia is a genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur. It lived during the Late Triassic period in what is now Andhra Pradesh, central India...

  • 2011
    2011 in paleontology
    -Lobopods:-Arachnids:-Insects:-Newly named jawless vertebrates:-Newly named acanthodian:-Newly named cartilaginous fishes:-Newly named bony fishes:-Newly named lepospondyls:-Newly named temnospondyls:-Newly named lissamphibians:...

  • Valid taxon.
  • Fernando E. Novas
    Fernando Novas
    Fernando Emilio Novas is an Argentine paleontologist working for the Comparative Anatomy Department of the Bernardino Rivadavia Natural History Argentine Museum in Buenos Aires...

  • Martin D. Ezcurra
  • Kutty
  • Postosuchus
    Postosuchus
    Postosuchus, meaning "crocodile from Post ", was a basal archosaur that lived in what is now North America during the middle through to the late Triassic period...

  • 1985
    1985 in paleontology
    -Insects:-Newly named dinosaurs:Data courtesy of George Olshevsky's dinosaur genera list and Dr. Jeremy Montague's dinosaur genus database.-New taxa:-New taxa:-Non-mammalian:-References:...

  • Valid taxon.
    N/A
    • Pradhania
      Pradhania
      Pradhania is a genus of massospondylid sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Sinemurian-age Upper Dharmaram Formation of India. It was first named by T. S. Kutty, Sankar Chatterjee, Peter M. Galton and Paul Upchurch in 2007 and the type species is Pradhania gracilis...

  • 2007
    2007 in paleontology
    -newly named:-New taxa:-Newly named non-avian dinosaurs:Data courtesy of George Olshevky's dinosaur genera list.-Newly named birds:-New papers:...

  • Valid taxon.
  • Kutty
  • Peter Galton
    Peter Galton
    Peter M. Galton is a British vertebrate paleontologist working in America, who has to date written or co-written about a hundred papers in scientific journals or chapters in paleontology textbooks, especially on ornithischian and prosauropod dinosaurs.With Robert Bakker in a joint article...

  • Upchurch
  • Shuvosaurus
    Shuvosaurus
    Shuvosaurus is a genus of beaked reptile from the Late Triassic of Texas. It was described by Sankar Chatterjee in 1993 after it was discovered by his son Shuvo. It was initially interpreted as a Triassic member of the Cretaceous dinosaur family Ornithomimidae...

  • 1984
    1984 in paleontology
    -Newly named dinosaurs:Data courtesy of George Olshevsky's dinosaur genera list and Dr. Jeremy Montague's dinosaur genus database.-New taxa:-Non-mammalian:...

  • Valid taxon.
    N/A
    • Technosaurus
      Technosaurus
      Technosaurus is an extinct genus of Late Triassic archosauriform, perhaps a dinosauriform similar to Silesaurus, from the Norian age Upper Triassic Bull Canyon Formation of Texas...

  • 1995
    1995 in paleontology
    -Arachnids:-Insects:-Dinosaurs:* Fossil hunters working on behalf of the Royal Saskatchewan Museum discover a large coprolite from a theropod dinosaur in Maastrichtian strata. In 1997 it is sent to coprolite specialist Karen Chin, who determines that this specimen of fossilized feces was...

  • Valid taxon.
    N/A
    • Tikisuchus
      Tikisuchus
      Tikisuchus is an extinct genus of rauisuchid rauisuchian. It is known from the Late Triassic Tiki Formation in the Shahdol District of central India and was the first rauisuchid to have been found in Asia. The horizon from which remains have been found is Carnian in age. The type species is T....

  • 1987
    1987 in paleontology
    -Dinosaurs:* Stokes suggested that sauropods recycled their gastroliths and chose them based on bright color.-Newly named dinosaurs:Data courtesy of George Olshevsky's dinosaur genera list and Dr. Jeremy Montague's dinosaur genus database.-New taxa:...

  • Valid taxon.
  • Pranab K. Majumdar
  • Walkeria
  • 1987
    1987 in paleontology
    -Dinosaurs:* Stokes suggested that sauropods recycled their gastroliths and chose them based on bright color.-Newly named dinosaurs:Data courtesy of George Olshevsky's dinosaur genera list and Dr. Jeremy Montague's dinosaur genus database.-New taxa:...

  • Preoccupied.
    N/A

    Name preoccupied by a bryozoan. Renamed Alwalkeria
    Alwalkeria
    Alwalkeria is a genus of basal saurischian dinosaur from the Late Triassic of India. It was a small bipedal omnivore.This dinosaur was originally named Walkeria maleriensis by Sankar Chatterjee in 1987, in honor of famous British paleontologist Alick Walker and the Maleri Formation, in which its...

    in 1994
    1994 in paleontology
    -Dinosaurs:* Aff. Rebbachisaurus gastroliths documented.* The "Talkeetna Mountains Hadrosaur" specimen was discovered in a quarry being excavated for road material. The quarry is near the Glenn Highway, approximately 150 miles northeast of Anchorage...

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