Zalmoxes

Zalmoxes
	Graphic representation of Zalmoxes
Temporal occurrence
	Upper Cretaceous (Upper Maastrichtian )
	69.9 to 66 million years
Locations
	Hateg Basin ( Romania );
Systematics
	Pelvic dinosaur (Ornithischia)
	Cerapoda
	Ornithopoda
	Iguanodontia
	Rhabdodontidae
	Zalmoxes
Scientific name
	Zalmoxes
	Weishampel , 2003
species
	Zalmoxes robustus; Zalmoxes shqiperorum;

Graphic representation of Rhabdodon

Zalmoxes is a genus of ornithopods from the Late Upper Cretaceous , the fossils of which were found in the Hateg Basin in Romania . The type species Zalmoxes robustus was first described in 1902 by Franz Baron Nopcsa under the name Mochlodon robustus .

features

The Zalmoxes fossils described by Nopcsa were very well preserved. It was robustly built, had a rounded body and a relatively large head with pointed jaws. The skull was shorter and more compact than other ornithopods. It had ten to twelve teeth in its upper jaw . From the proportions of the limbs one can conclude that Zalmoxes was a bipedal , i.e. a dinosaur walking on two legs. However, the width of the hips and the body suggest that the hind legs were further apart than in other ornithopods. In total, Zalmoxes was 4 m long.

Systematics

Zalmoxes was originally assigned to the genus Mochlodon , in 1915 Nopcsa assigned the finds to the genus Rhabdodon . He later recognized the close relationship to Hypsilophodon or Camptosaurus . Since little was published on Rhabdodon in the 20th century, a detailed comparison could not be made. Recent studies have led to the fact that Zalmoxes and Rhabdodon are combined in the family Rhabdodontidae . In the cladogram they are between the Hypsilophodon and the Iguanodontia .

Ornithopoda

Hypsilophodon

Rhabdodontidae

	Zalmoxes

	Rhabdodon

	Iguanodontia

According to Norman , the Rhabdodontidae is dissolved and Zalmoxes is a basal Iguanodontia .

Paleoecology

Skull reconstruction by Zalmoxes

Zalmoxes shared the habitat mainly with other ornithics. Nopcsa described the hadrosaurs Telmatosaurus transylvanicus and the nodosaurids Struthiosaurus transylvanicus from the Hateg basin . The Hateg Basin also contained a sauropod named Magyarosaurus . All of these dinosaurs were relatively small, about 3 to 6 meters in length.

The habitat of Zalmoxes was an island, possibly a volcanic island, which would explain the small size of the dinosaurs ( island dwarfing ).

Importance of the find

In the 1920s, Nopcsa developed the theory that the dinosaurs from the Hateg Basin were endemic species living on an island. They are descendants of widespread genera from an earlier period of the Mesozoic Era. After the First World War , paleontological investigations began to wane and were only resumed in the 1970s.

swell

literature

Darren Naish: The Fascinating Discovery of the Dinosaurs. Konrad Theiss Verlag GmbH, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8062-2325-5 .

Individual evidence

^ Gregory S. Paul : The Princeton Field Guide To Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ et al. 2010, ISBN 978-0-691-13720-9 , p. 281, online .
↑ ^a ^b ^c David B. Norman : Basal Iguanodontia. In: David Weishampel , Peter Dodson , Halszka Osmólska : The Dinosauria . 2nd edition. University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 2004, ISBN 0-520-24209-2 , pp. 413-437.
↑ The Last Years of the Dinosaurs , DVD, 2005.

Web links

Commons : Zalmoxes - Collection of images, videos and audio files

[paul_10-1] Gregory S. Paul : The Princeton Field Guide To Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ et al. 2010, ISBN 978-0-691-13720-9 , p. 281, online .

[norman-2] David B. Norman : Basal Iguanodontia. In: David Weishampel , Peter Dodson , Halszka Osmólska : The Dinosauria . 2nd edition. University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 2004, ISBN 0-520-24209-2 , pp. 413-437.

[3] The Last Years of the Dinosaurs , DVD, 2005.