rajasaurus

Rajasaurus narmadensis is a genus of abelisaurid theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of what is now India. It is known from fossils recovered from the Lameta Formation of the Narmada River valley, and dates to the Maastrichtian stage, roughly 70 million years ago. The name Rajasaurus means "king lizard," and narmadensis refers to the Narmada region where the remains were found.

Rajasaurus was a mid-sized carnivore within Abelisauridae, a group of ceratosaurian theropods common in Gondwana. It was bipedal, with the typical short forelimbs and a large skull equipped with distinctive cranial ornamentation. As an abelisaurid, it likely had a powerful bite and a proportionally robust skull, adapted for predation on contemporary vertebrates.

The known material includes skull elements and associated postcranial bones, allowing researchers to assess its proportions and some functional features. Its discovery added to the understanding of Indian theropod diversity during the Late Cretaceous and contributed to the broader picture of abelisaurid distribution in Asia and Gondwana.

The ecological role of Rajasaurus would have been as a predator in a fauna dominated by sauropods and other dinosaurs of the Deccan region, living in a warm, semiarid environment with river systems and volcanic activity associated with the Deccan Traps.