Genus
Valid Extinct

Balaur

Csiki et al. 2010
Etymology ''Balaur'' est un ancien mot roumain signifiant ''dragon''

Balaur bondoc is a species of paravian theropod dinosaur from the late Cretaceous period, in what is now Romania. It is the type species of the monotypic genus Balaur, after the balaur, a dragon of Romanian folklore. The specific name bondoc means "stocky", so Balaur bondoc means "stocky dragon" in Romanian. This name refers to the greater musculature that Balaur had compared to its relatives. The genus, which was first described by scientists in August 2010, is known from two partial skeletons. Some researchers suggest that the taxon might represent a junior synonym of Elopteryx.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
2
Group
Dinosaures
Carnivore Ground dwelling Terrestrial
Balaur
click to enlarge
Fossil of Balaur, an extinct theropod- Took the photo at Fossil Show, Munich © Ghedoghedo · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia
PBDB ↗ Wikipedia ↗
Classification
Dinosauria Unranked clade
›
Theropoda Unranked clade
›
Neotheropoda Unranked clade
›
Averostra Unranked clade
›
Tetanurae Unranked clade
›
Coelurosauria Unranked clade
›
Maniraptora Unranked clade
›
Paraves Unranked clade
›
Deinonychosauria Infraorder
›
Dromaeosauridae Family
›
Balaur Genus
Fossil sites 2 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇷🇴 Romania
2
Geological formations
Densuş-Ciula
1
Sebeş
1
Temporal distribution
Maastrichtian (72.2–66 Ma)
2
Species (1)
Balaur bondoc 72 Ma
Images 1
Bibliography
Original description
Z. Csiki, M. Vremir, and S. L. Brusatte, M. A. Norell. 2010. An aberrant island-dwelling theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Romania. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107(35):15357-15361 DOI ↗
Bibliography (1)
Z. Csiki, M. Vremir, and S. L. Brusatte, M. A. Norell. 2010. An aberrant island-dwelling theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Romania. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107(35):15357-15361 DOI ↗