A Catalog ofZalmoxes(Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) Specimens from the Upper Cretaceous Nălaţ-Vad Locality, Haţeg Basin, Romania

Abstract

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 Haţeg 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

An early-diverging iguanodontian (Dinosauria: Rhabdodontomorpha) from the Late Cretaceous of North America

“…robustus and Z . shqiperorum by Brusatte et al, [ 97 ], and is not described for Hypsilophodon [ 69 ], but may be present on Rhabdodon (CM-611) [65: Fig 4 .22]. Ventral to this tuberosity is a small sulcus in the same location as described by Andrzejewski [ 64 ] for Convolosaurus ( Fig 18B ).…”

Spatial and Temporal Distribution of the Island-Dwelling Kogaionidae (Mammalia, Multituberculata) in the Uppermost Cretaceous of Transylvania (Western Romania)

“…Two fossiliferous pockets yielded disarticulated remains of two partial skeletons, representing the rhabdodontid ornithopod Zalmoxes (Godefroit et al, 2009), and the titanosaur Paludititan (Csiki et al, 2010c). Partial turtle shells referable to the basal testudinate Kallokibotion are common (Csiki-Sava et al, 2016;Pérez-Garcia and Codrea, 2018), as are diverse skeletal elements belonging to Zalmoxes (Brusatte et al, 2017). Isolated skeletal remains document the presence of further taxa at Nalat-Vad.…”

Reappraisal of the braincase anatomy of the ornithopod dinosaurs Telmatosaurus and Zalmoxes from the Upper Cretaceous of the Haţeg Basin (Romania) and the taxonomic reassessment of some previously referred specimens

“…The age of the succession has been estimated as 'middle' (i.e., close to the early/late Maastrichtian boundary; Van Itterbeeck et al 2005) or late Maastrichtian (Panaiotu et al 2011;Ciobanete et al 2011). Only relatively recently have systematic excavations along the Râul Mare revealed rich and diverse vertebrate assemblages comprising amphibians, turtles, squamates, pterosaurs, different dinosaurs including birds and multituberculate mammals as well as dinosaur eggs (Smith et al 2002;Codrea et al 2002;Godefroit et al 2009;Csiki et al 2010a;Wang et al 2011;Csiki-Sava et al 2016;Brusatte et al 2017;Mayr et al 2020). Some of the most important finds occurred in so-called fossil pockets, local accumulations of vertebrate fossils that are sometimes associated or even partially articulated such as the holotype of the titanosaur Paludititan (Csiki et al 2010a).…”

“…In the original description, Godefroit et al (2009) referred to the braincase as UBB NVZ1-40, although this number actually identifies a rhabdodontid left quadrate from this fossil site. The assignment of UBB NVZ 1-42 to Zalmoxes shqiperorum has previously been questioned by Brusatte et al (2017), who also noted that it might instead belong to Telmatosaurus.…”

“…Despite being a relatively well-known taxon, there has been considerable debate over the referral of isolated and disarticulated remains to Telmatosaurus, primarily involving the other ornithopod dinosaur known from the Haţeg Basin, the rhabdodontid Zalmoxes (Weishampel et al 1993(Weishampel et al , 2003Brusatte et al 2017). In fact, Zalmoxes was the second taxon that was described in detail by Nopcsa, although he originally referred the rhabdodontid material from the Haţeg Basin to Mochlodon and subsequently to Rhabdodon (Nopcsa 1902a(Nopcsa , 1904(Nopcsa , 1915(Nopcsa , 1928.…”