Balaur
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Balaur Temporal range: Upper Cretaceous, 70 mya |
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| Balaur bondoc displaying its double sickle claws in a kicking action |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Sauropsida |
| Superorder: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | Theropoda |
| Infraorder: | Deinonychosauria |
| Superfamily: | Dromaeosauroidae |
| Family: | Dromaeosauridae |
| Genus: | Balaur |
Balaur is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in southern Europe during the Upper Cretaceous, about 70 million years ago. It is unique because, unlike most other dromaeosaurs, it had two sickle claws on each foot, not just one.[1]
It was discovered in 2010. Balaur lived on a large prehistoric island called Hateg Island. Seventy million years ago, sea levels were much higher than they are today. Europe was an archipelago of islands.[2] Possibly because it was relatively isolated from other dinosaurs, Balaur developed unique features.
There is one known species, Balaur bondoc. Balaur is classified as a velociraptorine. Studies have shown that it is most closely related to the famous Asian dromaeosaurid Velociraptor.
References [change]
- ↑ Z., Csiki; Vremir M; Brusatte S.L. and Norell M.A. (2010). "An aberrant island-dwelling theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Romania". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107 (35): 15357–15361. doi:10.1073/pnas.1006970107. PMC 2932599. PMID 20805514.
- ↑ Stein K. et al (2010). "Small body size and extreme cortical bone remodeling indicate phyletic dwarfism in Magyarosaurus dacus (Sauropoda: Titanosauria)". Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 107 (20): 9258–9263. doi:10.1073/pnas.1000781107. PMC 2889090. PMID 20435913.
