TRANSYLVANOSAURUS
a rhabdodontid ornithopod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Romania.
Pronunciation: TRAN-sil-VAY-no-SOR-us
Meaning: Lizard from across the forest
Author/s: Augustin
et al. (
2022)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Hateg Basin, Romania
Discovery Chart Position: #1083
Transylvanosaurus platycephalus
(Wide-headed lizard from across the forest)Etymology
Transylvanosaurus is derived from "Transylvania" — which is itself derived from the Latin "trans" (across) and "silva (forest) — and the Greek "sauros" (lizard). The
species epithet,
platycephalus, is derived from the Greek "platys" (wide) and "cephalos" (head).
Zoobank registry:
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:98E276B0-6E97-460E-8848-A8381DFC3A90.
Discovery
The remains of
Transylvanosaurus were discovered in the Barbat River Valley section — informally-named the "Barbat Formation" or "Pui Beds" — near Pui, eastern Hateg Basin, Hunedoara County, Romania, by S. Vasile in July 2007.
The
holotype, LPB (FGGUB) R.2070, is a fragmentary skull.
Preparators
Technicians at the Laboratory of Paleontology of the Faculty of Geology and Geophysics, University of Bucharest.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Late Cretaceous
Stage: Maastrichtian
Age range: 72-66 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: 2 meters
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: ?
Diet: Herbivore
Transylvanosaurus
platycephalus
References
• Therrien F (2005) "Palaeoenvironments of the latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) dinosaurs of Romania: insights from fluvial deposits and paleosols of the Transylvanian and Hat?eg basins".
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 218: 15–56.
• Csiki-Sava Z, Buffetaut E, Osi A, Pereda-Suberbiola X and Brusatte SL (2015) "Island life in the Cretaceous– faunal composition, bio
geography, evolution, and extinction of land-living vertebrates
on the Late Cretaceous European archipelago".
ZooKeys, 469: 1–161.
• Augustin FJ, Bastiaans D, Dumbrava MD and Csiki-Sava Z (2022) "
A new ornithopod dinosaur, Transylvanosaurus
platycephalus gen. et sp. nov. (Dinosauria:
Ornithischia), from the Upper Cretaceous of the
Hateg Basin, Romania".
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2022.2133610.
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
TRANSYLVANOSAURUS :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/TRANSYLVANOSAURUS›. Web access: 06th Mar 2026.
