Bradycneme
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Extinct (fossil)
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| Bradycneme draculae Harrison and Walker, 1975 |
Bradycneme (meaning "slow leg") was a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Maastrichtian-age Upper Cretaceous Sânpetru Formation of the Haţeg Basin, Transylvania, Romania. It is based on a partial right tibiotarsus (BMNH A1588), which its describers believed came from an extinct family (Bradycnemidae) of giant owl.
[edit] History
Harrison and Walker described two "bradycnemids" from Romania in 1975: B. draculae and Heptasteornis andrewsi.[1] Other researchers, starting with Brodkorb (1978), soon compared them to small theropod dinosaurs, and to the dubious Elopteryx nopcsai, also thought to be a type of bird.[2] These three genera have been synonymized, split, and reassessed numerous times since then,[3][4][5][6][7] in part because of the fragmentary nature of the remains (all three are based on fragments of the same part of the leg). Usually, one or more of them is considered to be a troodontid.
In the most recent assessments, Csiki and Grigorescu (1998) found Bradycneme and Heptasteornis to be the same and most like troodontids,[6] but Naish (2004) did not follow the synonymy and found Heptasteornis to be an alvarezsaurid.[7]
[edit] Trivia
The species name draculae honors the famous Transylvanian vampire Count Dracula (although his castle was placed some way north of the Haţeg Basin, in Bistriţa-Năsăud County).[1]
[edit] References
- ^ a b Harrison, C.J.O., and Walker, C.A. (1975). The Bradycnemidae, a new family of owls from the Upper Cretaceous of Romania. Palaeontology 18(3):563-570.
- ^ Brodkorb, P. (1978). Catalogue of fossil birds. Bulletin Florida State Museum 23(3):139-228.
- ^ Paul, G.S. (1988). Predatory Dinosaurs of the World. Simon & Schuster:New York, 464 p. ISBN 0-671-61946-2
- ^ Weishampel, D.B., Grigorescu, D., and Norman, D.B. (1991). The dinosaurs of Transylvania. National Geographic Research and Exploration 7(2):196-215.
- ^ Le Loeuff, J., Buffetaut, E., Méchin, P., and Méchin-Salessy, A. (1992). The first record of dromaeosaurid dinosaurs (Saurischia, Theropoda) in the Maastrichtian of southern Europe: palaeobiogeographical implications. Bulletin de la Société géologique de la France 163(3):337-343.
- ^ a b Csiki, G., and Grigorescu, D. (1998). Small theropods from the Late Cretaceous of the Hateg Basin (western Romania) - an unexpected diversity at the top of the food chain. Oryctos 1:87-104.
- ^ a b Naish, D. (2004). Heptasteornis was no ornithomimid, troodontid, dromaeosaurid or owl: the first alvarezsaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from Europe. Neus Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Mh. 7:385-401.
