A study led by EARTH and UMMP grad student Tariq Abdul Kareem has found that the basal sauropod dinosaur, Kotasaurus yamanpalliensis, had a bony tail club. This discovery was based on four skeletal elements from the Kota Formation in India. These structures were compared to similar features in other sauropods of a similar age (about 175 million years old) from China, such as Shunosaurus lii and Omeisaurus tianfuensis, to understand their evolutionary development. 

The Kotasaurus tail clubs, comprising up to three fused vertebral elements, were examined using CT scans, revealing growth lines and other intriguing features. This research, published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, raises new questions about the evolutionary origins and functions of these tail clubs and whether such traits evolved independently or were shared among early sauropods—the tail clubs from India and China are the only examples of sauropod tail clubs, which is remarkable considering that basal sauropods represent less than 10 percent of all known sauropods.

Read more here.