Interview | Steve Brusatte on why India could be the world’s next dinosaur hotspot
Palaeontologist Steve Brusatte argues that India holds immense potential as a global hotspot for dinosaur fossil discoveries. He notes that while the country has spectacular geological resources, a lack of academic infrastructure and trained palaeontologists currently limits research.
Why it matters
Unlocking India's fossil record could provide critical insights into the evolutionary history of dinosaurs during the Cretaceous period.
Roughly once a week, a creature dead for tens of millions of years is introduced to science for the first time. Around 50 new dinosaur species are named every year — a pace the species might have struggled to match even at their peak in the Cretaceous period, between 145 and 66 million years ago. Steve Brusatte, the University of Edinburgh palaeontologist who consults on the Jurassic World films and wrote the bestselling The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs (2018), calls it “a golden age”.
The article is an educational interview focused on scientific potential and academic challenges.
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