''Heptasteornis'' is the name given to a potentially dubious

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

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 ...

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 Late

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

. The type (and only known) species is ''Heptasteornis andrewsi'', described as a presumed gigantic prehistoric

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 ...

in 1975. It was previously included in ''

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 ...

'' and indeed 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 sever ...

s of both were believed to be from the same individual as they were discovered, and initially were assigned the same specimen number. This appears to be in error however (see below).Harrison & Walker (1975) The material was discovered in

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

by Franz Nopcsa, in the late

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 ...

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, ne ...

( Rognacian

faunal stage In chronostratigraphy, a stage is a succession of rock strata laid down in a single age on the geologic timescale, which usually represents millions of years of deposition. A given stage of rock and the corresponding age of time will by convent ...

, deposited c. 68 - 66

million years ago The abbreviation Myr, "million years", is a unit of a quantity of (i.e. ) years, or 31.556926 teraseconds. Usage Myr (million years) is in common use in fields such as Earth science and cosmology. Myr is also used with Mya (million years ago) ...

) of the Haţeg Basin in

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 ...

. The scientific name means "C.W. Andrews' Transylvanian bird", after the namer of ''Elopteryx'', and

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 p ...

''hepta'' (ἑπτά) "seven" + ''asty'' (άστυ) "city" + ''ornis'' (όρνις) "bird"; the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''septum urbium'' or the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

''Siebenbürgen'' - meaning "seven cities" or "seven castles" - were common names for the Transylvanian region throughout the centuries. The material was originally limited to a mere two broken distal

tibiotarsi 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 sma ...

, BMNH A4359 and A1528. The taxonomic status and systematic placement of these bones was much disputed and they were often considered junior synonyms of ''

Bradycneme ''Bradycneme'' (meaning "ponderous leg") is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Maastrichtian-age Upper Cretaceous Sânpetru Formation of the Hațeg Basin, Transylvania, Romania. The genus contains a single species, ''Bradycneme draculae'', k ...

'' or ''Elopteryx''. Given the fragmentary nature of the fossils, little could be resolved and ''Heptasteornis'' was (and still is) considered a '' nomen dubium'' by many. However, more recently the bones were reassessed as an

, the first to be known from Europe, and this theory, originally proposed in 1988, has since withstood further scrutiny. ''Bradycneme'' and ''Elopteryx'' on the other hand seem to be more advanced

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 theropods.Naish & Dyke (2004) Thus, of those three enigmatic Romanian theropods the one most explicitly named a "bird" in its scientific name is almost certainly the one most distantly related to birds.

References

Bibliography

* (1913): On some bird remains from the Upper Cretaceous of Transylvania. ''

Geological Magazine The ''Geological Magazine'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal established in 1864, covering the earth sciences. It publishes original scientific research papers on geological topics. The journal is published bimonthly by Cambridge University ...

'' 5: 193–196. * (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'' 18(3): 563–570
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* (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
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{{Taxonbar, from=Q3234337 Alvarezsaurids Maastrichtian life Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of Europe Cretaceous Romania Fossils of Romania Fossil taxa described in 1975 Taxa named by Colin Harrison Taxa named by Cyril Walker Nomina dubia