The osteology of Balaur bondoc, an island-dwelling dromaeosaurid (Dinosauria, Theropoda) from the late Cretaceous of Romania: 7 tables

The Hat̹eg Island fauna of the terminal late Cretaceous (ca. 71-65 million years ago) of Romania is one of the most unusual dinosaur assemblages in the global fossil record. It has long been recognized that many herbivorous dinosaurs from the Hat̹eg fauna were dwarfed, morphologically aberrant, and/...

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Format: Buch
Sprache:English
Veröffentlicht: New York, NY American Museum of Natural History 2013
Schriftenreihe:Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 374
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Zusammenfassung:The Hat̹eg Island fauna of the terminal late Cretaceous (ca. 71-65 million years ago) of Romania is one of the most unusual dinosaur assemblages in the global fossil record. It has long been recognized that many herbivorous dinosaurs from the Hat̹eg fauna were dwarfed, morphologically aberrant, and/or primitive relative to mainland contemporaries, and these taxa are often considered examples of the so-called island effect: the evolutionary phenomenon by which island-dwelling species are often dwarfed and anatomically modified. Very little, however, is known about the carnivorous dinosaurs that inhabited Hat̹eg Island, and it is unclear whether they were also dwarfed, aberrant, or primitive. In 2009, the discovery of the first substantially complete theropod from the late Cretaceous of Europe, the holotype of the Romanian dromaeosaurid Balaur bondoc, provided the first clear glimpse at an island-dwelling carnivorous dinosaur. Here we describe and figure this remarkably preserved skeleton in detail. We provide detailed descriptions and photographs of individual bones, and make extensive comparisons with other dromaeosaurids (and other derived coelurosaurian theropods). This monographic description provides further evidence that Balaur is an unusual derived dromaeosaurid, closely related to Velociraptor, with a remarkably modified hand and foot skeleton, including a stocky and heavily fused distal hind limb, a double set of hyperextensible pedal claws, and a fused and atrophied hand, which are otherwise unknown among derived coelurosaurian theropods. We present an updated diagnosis of Balaur based on additional preparation of the holotype, comparisons with other dromaeosaurids, and careful consideration of postmortem crushing. Histological techniques demonstrate that both the holotype and a referred specimen of Balaur, which is approximately 50% larger than the holotype and from a separate locality, belong to mature individuals. Therefore, we remove the r
Beschreibung:"Issued February 13, 2013. - Includes bibliographical references (p. 94-100)
Anatomy of Romanian dromaeosaurid Balaur
Beschreibung:100 S. zahlr. Ill., graph. Darst. 26 cm

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