''Bradycneme'' (meaning "ponderous leg") is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

theropod Theropoda (; ), whose members are known as theropods, is a dinosaur clade that is characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb. Theropods are generally classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs. They were ancestrally c ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

from the

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian () is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the latest age (uppermost stage) of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series, the Cretaceous Period or System, and of the Mesozoic Era or Erathem. It spanned the interval from ...

-age

Upper Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...

Sânpetru Formation The Sânpetru Formation is an early Maastrichtian geologic formation. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.Weishampel, et al. (2004). "Dinosaur distribution." Pp. 517-607. It is located in Romania, nea ...

of the

Hațeg Basin Hațeg (; german: Wallenthal; hu, Hátszeg) is a town in Hunedoara County, Romania with a population of 9,340. Three villages are administered by the town: Nălațvad (''Nalácvád''), Silvașu de Jos (''Alsószilvás''), and Silvașu de Sus ( ...

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

. The genus contains a single species, ''Bradycneme draculae'', known only from a partial right lower leg (specimen BMNH A1588), which its original describers believed came from a giant

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

History

In 1975, Harrison and Walker described two "bradycnemids" from Romania: ''B. draculae'' and ''

Heptasteornis andrewsi ''Heptasteornis'' is the name given to a potentially dubious genus of alvarezsaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous. The type (and only known) species is ''Heptasteornis andrewsi'', described as a presumed gigantic prehistoric owl in 1975. It w ...

''. These specimens had initially been assigned to the supposed

pelecaniform The Pelecaniformes are an order of medium-sized and large waterbirds found worldwide. As traditionally—but erroneously—defined, they encompass all birds that have feet with all four toes webbed. Hence, they were formerly also known by such n ...

bird ''

Elopteryx nopcsai ''Elopteryx'' is a genus of, perhaps troodontid, maniraptoran theropod dinosaur based on fragmentary fossils found in late Cretaceous Period rocks of Romania. The single species, ''Elopteryx nopcsai'', is known only from very incomplete material ...

''. The generic name, ''Bradycneme'', comes from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

(), meaning "slow, ponderous" and (), meaning "leg", as the

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

, BMNH A1588, a wide distal

tibiotarsus The tibiotarsus is the large bone between the femur and the tarsometatarsus in the leg of a bird. It is the fusion of the proximal part of the tarsus with the tibia. A similar structure also occurred in the Mesozoic Heterodontosauridae. These sm ...

found by Maud Eleanora Seeley, would be very stout if the animal had been an owl, with a body height of about .Harrison & Walker (1975) The specific name, ''draculae'', is derived from

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

', meaning "the dragon," and refers to

Dracula ''Dracula'' is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking ...

. Starting with

Pierce Brodkorb William Pierce Brodkorb (September 29, 1908, Chicago – July 18, 1992, Gainesville, Florida) was an American ornithologist and paleontologist. Interested in birds since childhood, he was taught to prepare birds at the age of 16. Later, he rec ...

, the specimens were soon compared to small theropod dinosaurs. ''Bradycneme'', ''Elopteryx'' and ''Heptasteornis'' have been synonymized, split, and reassessed numerous times since then in part because of the fragmentary nature of the remains; there exist three

proximal Standard anatomical terms of location are used to unambiguously describe the anatomy of animals, including humans. The terms, typically derived from Latin or Greek roots, describe something in its standard anatomical position. This position pro ...

femora The femur (; ), or thigh bone, is the proximal bone of the hindlimb in tetrapod vertebrates. The head of the femur articulates with the acetabulum in the pelvic bone forming the hip joint, while the distal part of the femur articulates with t ...

and three distal tibiotarsi, which may belong to one, two, or three species. Usually, at least one of them is considered to be a

troodontid Troodontidae is a clade of bird-like theropod dinosaurs. During most of the 20th century, troodontid fossils were few and incomplete and they have therefore been allied, at various times, with many dinosaurian lineages. More recent fossil discov ...

. In the most recent assessments, ''Bradycneme'' and ''Heptasteornis'' were found to be the same and most likely basal members of the

Tetanurae Tetanurae (/ˌtɛtəˈnjuːriː/ or "stiff tails") is a clade that includes most theropod dinosaurs, including megalosauroids, allosauroids, tyrannosauroids, ornithomimosaurs, compsognathids and maniraptorans (including birds). Tetanurans are ...

in one study, but

Darren Naish Darren William Naish is a British vertebrate palaeontologist, author and science communicator. As a researcher, he is best known for his work describing and reevaluating dinosaurs and other Mesozoic reptiles, including ''Eotyrannus'', ''Xenopos ...

did not follow the synonymy and found ''Heptasteornis'' to be an

alvarezsaurid Alvarezsauridae is a family of small, long-legged dinosaurs. Although originally thought to represent the earliest known flightless birds, they are now thought to be an early diverging branch of maniraptoran theropods. Alvarezsaurids were highly ...

, while classifying ''Bradycneme'' as an indeterminate

maniraptora Maniraptora is a clade of coelurosaurian dinosaurs which includes the birds and the non-avian dinosaurs that were more closely related to them than to ''Ornithomimus velox''. It contains the major subgroups Avialae, Deinonychosauria, Oviraptoros ...

n.Naish & Dyke (2004) In a 2011 classification, Tom Holtz assigned ''Bradycneme'' to the Alvarezsauridae along with ''Heptasteornis''.Holtz, Thomas R. Jr. (2011) ''Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-to-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages,'
Winter 2010 Appendix.
/ref>

References

Bibliography

* (1978): Catalogue of fossil birds, Part 5 (Passeriformes). ''Bulletin of the Florida State Museum, Biological Sciences'' 23(3): 139–228. * (1998): Small theropods from the Late Cretaceous of the Hateg Basin (western Romania) - an unexpected diversity at the top of the food chain. ''Oryctos'' 1: 87–104. * (1975): The Bradycnemidae, a new family of owls from the Upper Cretaceous of Romania. ''

Palaeontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

'' 18(3): 563–570
PDF fulltext
* (1992): The first record of dromaeosaurid dinosaurs (Saurischia, Theropoda) in the Maastrichtian of southern Europe: palaeobiogeographical implications. ''Bulletin de la Société géologique de la France'' 163(3): 337–343. * (2004): ''Heptasteornis'' was no ornithomimid, troodontid, dromaeosaurid or owl: the first alvarezsaurid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from Europe. ''Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Monatshefte'' 7: 385–401. * (1988): ''Predatory Dinosaurs of the World.'' New York, Simon & Schuster. * (1991): The dinosaurs of Transylvania. ''National Geographic Research and Exploration'' 7(2): 196–215
PDF fulltext
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3643532 Alvarezsaurids Maastrichtian life Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of Europe Cretaceous Romania Fossils of Romania Hațeg fauna Fossil taxa described in 1975 Taxa named by Colin Harrison Taxa named by Cyril Walker