Nambalia is a
genus of
basal sauropodomorph dinosaur. It lived during the
Late Triassic period (late
Norian to earliest
Rhaetian) in what is now
Andhra Pradesh, central
India. It is known from the
holotype ISI R273, parts 1-3, partially articulated
postcranial material and from the paratypes ISI R273, parts 4-29, including partial postcrania of at least two individuals of different sizes found closely associated and one of them is nearly the same size as the holotype. ISI R273 was discovered and collected from the
Upper Maleri Formation within the Pranhita–Godavari Basin, north of
Nambal village. It was first named by
Fernando E. Novas, Martin D. Ezcurra,
Sankar Chatterjee and T. S. Kutty in
2011 and the type species is
Nambalia roychowdhurii. The generic name is derived from the Indian village of
Nambal which is close to the type locality. The
specific name honors Dr. Roy Chowdhuri, for his research on the
Triassic vertebrate faunas of India. A
cladistic analysis by Novas et al. found that
Nambalia is basal to
Efraasia,
Plateosauravus,
Ruehleia and
Plateosauria, but more derived than
Thecodontosaurus,
Pantydraco, and
Guaibasauridae.
Nambalia was found along with the
plateosaurid Jaklapallisaurus, a
guaibasaurid, and two basal
dinosauriforms.
