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This work is a compilation of the different research projects carried out on dinosaur fossils in Gujarat under the auspices of the Geological Survey of India (GSI).
Perhaps the most significant vertebrate fossil discovery of the 20th Century in India is that of fossilized dinosaur eggs and nesting sites near Rahioli in Balasinor Taluka of Kaira (Kheda) district of Gujarat in Western India. This discovery of dinosaur nesting sites and hatcheries at Rahioli has put India prominently on the dinosaur map of the world, as this is one of the only three such dinosaur nesting sites in the world – the other two being the Aix-En province in France and the other one in Mongolia. Coincidentally this was also the first dinosaur discovery by the GSI in Gujarat. This discovery was followed by the first discovery of dinosaurs in the intertrappean beds (the sediments between two volcanic eruptions) in the westernmost part of India in Kachchh (Kutch) district which is also in Gujarat. These intertrappean dinosaurs are perhaps the remains of the youngest dinosaurs in the world and are associated with the trans-Cretaceous—Tertiary (K/T) Boundary. Detailed study of skeletal remains frorn Rahioli over two decades led to the establishment of two new species of Abelisaurid dinosaurs – Rajasaurus narmadensis (sp. nov.) and Rahiolisaurus gujaratensis (sp. nov.).
The Jurassic is considered to be the Golden age of Reptiles. Gujarat has a continuous stratigraphic succession from the Middle Jurassic (165 million years before present) to Recent. During systematic geological mapping over the last three decades, different GSI scientists have recorded dinosaur remains – physical (body), eggs and nests, as well as tracks and traces – in all the Mesozoic sediments right from the Middle Jurassic (Bajocian) to the terminal Cretaceous (Maastrichtian ~65 million years before the present) and even in basal Palaeocene sediments.
