page_title: Balaur bondoc
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Balaur bondoc / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: 2015 restoration of Balaur bondoc, after Cau et al.'s new paper on the avialan affinities of Balaur.
context_page_description: Balaur bondoc is a species of theropod dinosaur from the late Cretaceous period, in what is now Romania. It is the type species of the monotypic genus Balaur, after the balaur, a dragon of Romanian folklore. The specific name bondoc means "stocky", so Balaur bondoc means "stocky dragon" in Romanian. This name refers to the greater musculature that Balaur had compared to its relatives. The genus, which was first described by scientists in August 2010, is known from two partial skeletons.
  Fossils of Balaur were found in the Densuş-Ciula and Sebeș Formations part of Cretaceous Romania called Hațeg Island. Hațeg Island is commonly referred to as the "Island of the Dwarf Dinosaurs", and was part of the European archipelago of the Tethys Sea approximately 70 million years ago, when world sea levels were higher and much of Europe was tropical or sub-tropical. Early studies of the fossils placed the animal among the group of dromaeosaurid dinosaurs that includes Velociraptor, which was similar in size. Subsequent phylogenetic analyses have since placed Balaur among basal avialans, the group that includes modern birds.
context_section_description: Balaur is a genus of theropod dinosaurs estimated to have lived about 70 million years ago in the late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian), and contains the single species B. bondoc. The bones of this species were shorter and heavier than those of basal paravians. While the feet of most early paravians bore a single, large "sickle claw" on the second toe which was held retracted off the ground, Balaur had large retractable sickle claws on both the first and second toes of each foot. In addition to its strange feet, the type specimen of Balaur is unique for its status of being the most complete theropod fossil from the late Cretaceous of Europe. It also possesses a great number of additional autapomorphies, including a reduced and presumably nonfunctional third finger, consisting of only one rudimentary phalanx.
  The partial skeleton was collected from the red floodplain mudstone of the Sebeș Formation of Romania. It consists of a variety of vertebrae, as well as much of pectoral and pelvic girdles, and a large part of the limbs. It is the first reasonably complete and well-preserved theropod from the Late Cretaceous of Europe.
  It is similar in size to Velociraptor, with Balaur's recovered skeletal elements suggesting an overall length of around 1.8–2.1 metres (5.9–6.9 ft). Balaur had re-evolved a functional first toe used to support its weight, which bore a large claw that could be hyperextended. It had short and stocky feet and legs, and large muscle attachment areas on the pelvis which indicate that it was adapted for strength rather than speed.  Csiki et al. describe this "novel body plan" as "a dramatic example of aberrant morphology developed in island-dwelling taxa." The stocky feet are exemplified by the length of the metatarsus being only two times its width. It is 1.5 times wider than the lower leg. Both traits are unique in the Theropoda. The skeleton of Balaur also shows extensive fusion of limb bones. Wrist bones and the metacarpals are fused into a carpometacarpus. The pelvic bones are fused. The shinbone, calf bone and the upper ankle bones have been fused into a tibiotarsus and the lower ankle bones and the metatarsals into a tarsometatarsus. The degree of fusion is typical for the Avialae, the evolutionary branch of the birds and their direct relatives.
caption: Balaur reconstructed as an avialan
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