Sântămăria-Orlea (, ) is a commune in Hunedoara County, Transylvania,

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

. It is composed of nine villages: Balomir (''Balomir''), Bărăștii Hațegului (''Baresd''), Bucium-Orlea (''Bucsum''), Ciopeia (''Csopea''), Săcel (''Szacsal''), Sânpetru (''Szentpéterfalva''), Sântămăria-Orlea, Subcetate (''Hátszegváralja''), and Vadu (''Vád''). The commune lies in a hilly area, north of the Retezat Mountains, on the banks of the river Strei and its tributary, Râul Mare, as well as the latter's tributaries, Râul Galben and Sibișel. Sântămăria-Orlea is located in the southern part of Hunedoara County, south of the county seat,

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. It is situated in the historical and ethnographical area known as Țara Hațegului, southeast of its hub, the town of Hațeg. The commune is crossed by national road , part of European route E79. The in Sântămăria-Orlea dates back to 1792; it has been transformed into a hotel in 1982.

Fossils and geology

This community is notable as the place where, in the late 19th century, Ilona von Felsö-Szilvás discovered fossilized

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

bones that had become exposed in a hillside on her the family’s estate near Sânpetru (called then Szentpéterfalva'')''. At that time, the village was situated in Hunyad County within the county of borders of the

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, part of Austro-Hungarian Empire.Hungarian Natural History Museum, Department of Paleontology
Histories: King of the duck-billed dinosaurs
/ref> Ilona and her brother,

Baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than ...

Franz Nopcsa von Felsö-Szilvás, were intrigued by the discovery. The bones were sent to the eminent Viennese geologist Eduard Suess for identification. Suess advised the Baron to identify the bones himself; consequently, the Baron enrolled at the

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and soon became one of the principal paleobiological researchers in central Europe, and the founder of paleophysiology.Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Ilona's initial discovery turned out to be a duck-billed dinosaur. Subsequently, the remains of an armoured dinosaur, a long-necked sauropod, a flying reptile ( pterosaur), and several other dinosaurs were excavated from that same hill in Sânpetru. Geologically, Nopcsa's dinosaur fossils came from what was then called the Sânpetru Beds but are now called the Sânpetru Formation.

References

Communes in Hunedoara County Localities in Transylvania Țara Hațegului {{Hunedoara-geo-stub