Catalog of Zalmoxes fossils.

34 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), color map ; 26 cm.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

A mixed vertebrate eggshell assemblage from the Transylvanian Late Cretaceous

Abstract A Late Cretaceous-aged multi-taxon nesting site from Romania preserved in three dimensions reveals the earliest example of nest site sharing yet known from the vertebrate fossil record. Eggshell and osteological evidence combined in this single accumulation demonstrate that at least four vertebrate taxa including enantiornithine birds and another avian of indeterminate affinities as well as crocodylomorphs and gekkotan squamates nested together in the same place. Colonial nesting in enantiornithines was previously described from this site; here, we present the first fossil evidence that other vertebrates also nested in the same place, perhaps exploiting the presence of the large bird colony. We describe four distinct eggshell morphotypes that have been collected from this site and draw palaeoecological inferences based on this unique multi-taxon nesting association

New pterosaur from Romania.

16 pages : illustrations (some color), map ; 26 cm.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

Petre?ti-Arini - an important but ephemeral Late Cretaceous continental vertebrate site in the southwestern Transylvanian Basin, Romania

The Transylvanian region of Romania preserves some of the most unusual and iconic dinosaurs in the global fossil record, including dwarfed herbivores and aberrant carnivores that lived during the very latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) in an ancient island ecosystem (the Ha?eg Island). A series of artificial outcrops recently exposed during a hydroelectric project, the Petre?ti-Arini section near Sebe? in the Transylvanian Basin, records a 400+ meter sequence documenting the transition from fully marine to terrestrial environments during the Campanian–Maastrichtian. Calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy indicates that the lower marine beds in this section, part of the uppermost Boze? Formation, can be assigned to the CC22 biozone, corresponding to the lower–mid upper Campanian. These beds smoothly transition, via a brackish-water unit, into the fully continental Maastrichtian Sebe? Formation. Dinosaur and pterosaur fossils from the uppermost Boze? Formation can be assigned a late Campanian age making them the oldest well-dated terrestrial fossils from the Ha?eg Island, and indicating that the classic Ha?eg dinosaur fauna was becoming established by this time, coincident with the first emergence of widespread land areas. Vertebrate fossils occur throughout the overlying Sebe? Formation at the site and are dominated by the small-bodied herbivorous dinosaur Zalmoxes. The dominance of Zalmoxes, and the absence of many taxa commonly seen elsewhere in Maastrichtian sites in Romania, suggests the possibility that either the Petre?ti-Arini section preserves a somewhat unusual near-shore environment, or the earliest Ha?eg Island dinosaur communities were structured differently from the more diverse communities later in the Maastrichtian. Alternatively, due to the limited sample size available from the studied succession, it is also conceivable that sampling biases give an incomplete portrayal of the Petre?ti-Arini local fauna. Support for any one of these alternative hypotheses requires further data from Petre?ti-Arini as well as from the larger Transylvania area

Stratigraphic log of the Sebes Glod (SbG/B) vertebrate site.

<p>Facies codes and architectural elements after <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0054268#pone.0054268-Miall1" target="_blank">[64]</a>.</p

<i>Eurazhdarcho langendorfensis</i> (EME VP 312) <i>in situ</i> bone map.

<p>Numbered labels are as follows: cervical vertebrae (1, 2 and 10); third (#2) and fourth (#1) cervicals; right wing metacarpal four (# 3); incomplete right metacarpal three (# 4); proximal half of first right wing phalanx (# 5); portion of distal diaphysis of the second smaller wing phalanx (# 6); distal manual phalanx (# 7), and; several indeterminate fragmentary bones (# 8, 9, 11–15) some perhaps pertaining to additional manual phalanges and/or small metacarpals. As part of the associated skeletal elements of EME VP 312 (# 10–15) are now stored in the UBB collection (subsequent to collection; excavation B), closer examination for this project was not possible.</p