Browsing by Author "Totoianu, Radu."
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Item A catalog of Zalmoxes (Dinosauria, Ornithopoda) specimens from the Upper Cretaceous Nălaț-Vad locality, Hațeg Basin, Romania. (American Museum novitates, no. 3884)(American Museum of Natural History., 2017-10-23) Brusatte, Stephen.; Dumbravă, Mihai.; Vremir, Mátyás.; Csiki-Sava, Zoltán.; Totoianu, Radu.; Norell, Mark.The Transylvanian area of Romania boasts a rich fossil record of dinosaurs, which lived on an island (Haţeg Island) during the very end of the Cretaceous. Many of these are dwarfed in body size or exhibit other unusual features thought to be linked to their insular habitat. One of the most common of these dinosaurs is the rhabdodontid ornithopod Zalmoxes, an herbivorous taxon that has been found at many Upper Cretaceous sites across Transylvania. Our collaborative fieldwork has uncovered several new Zalmoxes specimens from the Nălaț-Vad (= Vadu) locality, a site along the Râul Mare River in the Hațeg Basin that dates to the "middle" to late Maastrichtian. These include a partial associated skeleton, along with various isolated bones from several additional individuals. We catalog and describe these specimens here, and compare them to other Zalmoxes fossils from Romania. They provide further evidence that Zalmoxes was one of the most common vertebrates in the latest Cretaceous of Transylvania, and add to the unusual fossil record of Nălaț-Vad, which has yielded a much greater number of associated skeletons than other Transylvanian localities. Some of the Nălaț-Vad specimens possess features characteristic of the type species, Z. robustus, whereas others exhibit features diagnostic of the larger and stockier Z. shqiperorum, indicating that these species were locally sympatric, as has been demonstrated at other Transylvanian sites. The specimens span much of the size range known from Zalmoxes, as well as the spatial and temporal extent of the Nălaț-Vad locality, suggesting that this taxon flourished until near the end of the Cretaceous.Item A medium-sized robust-necked azhdarchid pterosaur (Pterodactyloidea, Azhdarchidae) from the Maastrichtian of Pui (Hațeg Basin, Transylvania, Romania). (American Museum novitates, no. 3827)(American Museum of Natural History., 2015-03-17) Vremir, Mátyás.; Witton, Mark P., 1984-; Naish, Darren.; Dyke, Gareth.; Brusatte, Stephen.; Norell, Mark.; Totoianu, Radu.We describe a pterosaurian cervical vertebra collected from Maastrichtian sediments at the Pui locality in the Hațeg Basin, Romania. This specimen, a medium-sized, robust fourth cervical, is distinctive in morphology and represents a new, as yet unrecognized, azhdarchid pterosaur size class within the Haţeg Island fauna: it most likely belongs to a new taxon which we opt not to name here. The vertebra is referred to Azhdarchidae based on clearly preserved diagnostic features characteristic of this group and differs in proportions and anatomical details from the recently named azhdarchid Eurazhdarcho langendorfensis Vremir et al., 2013a, from the Sebeș region of the Transylvanian basin. We take issue with claims that all Maastrichtian Romanian azhdarchids (and other penecontemporaneous azhdarchids and azhdarchoids) should be uncritically assumed to be synonymous: it ignores anatomical characters that allow the specimens concerned to be differentiated and is based on an erroneous "one stratum, one species" philosophy contradicted by empirical data from other azhdarchoid assemblages. It has been suggested that the absence of small to medium-sized pterosaurs in Upper Cretaceous sediments is indicative of an evolutionary trend. However, evidence from the Hațeg Island fauna may indicate instead that smaller-sized pterosaurs were indeed present in this interval but remain underrepresented due to rare preservation and collection.