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Lametasaurus ( - meaning "Lameta lizard") named for the Lameta Formation, Jabalpur, India, is the generic name given to a possibly chimeric dinosaur species. The type species is L. indicus.
However, in 1935 Dhirendra Kishore Chakravarti contested the interpretation as an armoured dinosaur. He claimed that the specimen was a chimera including armor, crocodile teeth and theropod hindlimb material.Chakravarti, D. K., 1935, "Is Lametasaurus indicus an armored dinosaur?", American Journal of Science 30(5): 138-141 In 1964 Alick Walker chose the scutes as the lectotype, thus removing the teeth and the bones from the type material.Walker, A., 1964, "Triassic reptiles from the Elgin area: Ornithosuchus and the origin of carnosaurs", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 248: 53-134 The name Lametasaurus now designated the scutes only and was generally considered to represent a member of the Nodosauridae. The pelvis and hindlimb bones have in 2003 been suggested to belong to Rajasaurus, based on shared features in the .J.A. Wilson, P.C. Sereno, S. Srivastava, D.K. Bhatt, A. Khosla and A. Sahni, 2003, "A new abelisaurid (Dinosauria, Theropoda) from the Lameta Formation (Cretaceous, Maastrichtian) of India", Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan 31(1): 1-42 In 2008 Matthew Carrano e.a. discarded the possibility the scutes were ankylosaurian, stating they were probably Titanosauria, but noted that a comparison to the osteoderms of Ceratosaurus would help in determining its affinities. If in which case the species were to be found ceratosaurian, it would possibly be a senior synonym of Indosaurus and/or Rajasaurus.M.T. Carrano and S.D. Sampson, 2008, "The phylogeny of Ceratosauria (Dinosauria: Theropoda)", Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 6(2): 183-236 Most recently, it has been suggested that some of the osteoderms assigned to Lametasaurus show ankylosaurian synapomorphies, which renders Lametasaurus a chimera regardless of the affinities of the other material.
The type material has been lost, lacking a known inventory number, making it difficult to test the several hypotheses. The taxon is today commonly seen as a nomen dubium.F.E. Novas, S. Chatterjee, D.K. Rudra and P.M. Datta, 2010, " Rahiolisaurus gujaratensis, n. gen. n. sp., a new abelisaurid theropod from the Late Cretaceous of India". In: S. Badyopadhyay (ed.), New Aspects of Mesozoic Biodiversity. Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences 132, pp. 45-62
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