MAGYAROSAURUS
a plant-eating dwarf titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Romania.
Pronunciation: mag-YAH-ro-SOR-us
Meaning: Magyar (people) lizard
Author/s: Huene (
1932)
Synonyms: Titanosaurus dacus (Nopcsa, 1915)
First Discovery: Hunedoara, Romania
Discovery Chart Position: #163
Magyarosaurus dacus
(Dacian Magyar lizard)Etymology
Magyarosaurus is derived from "Magyar" (the main ethnic group of Hungary) and the Greek "sauros" (lizard) . It may seem odd that a dinosaur from Romania honors Hungarian folk, but that's because Hatzeg in Western Romania still belonged to Hungary when
Magyarosaurus was found there in 1915. It was originally named
Titanosaurus dacus by Baron Nopcsa.
The
species epithet,
dacus, was named to honor the Dacians of ancient Romania.
Synonyms
Titanosaurus dacus (Nopcsa, 1915)
Magyarosaurus hungaricus? (von Huene, 1932)
Magyarosaurus transsylvanicus (von Huene, 1932)
Discovery
The first fossils of
Magyarosaurus were discovered in the
lower Member of the Sânpetru Formation at Szentpéterfalva (Hungarian name for the Village of Sânpetru)), Hateg Basin, Judetul (county) Covurlui, Romania, by Nopcsa in 1895.
The
holotype (BMNH R.3861a) is two vertebrae.
A dozen or so specimens from Sânpetru have since been assigned to
Magyarosaurus, including an armour plate from "La Cãrare" and forty eggs in 11 clutches, found at "Totesti-baraj" by a Belgo-Romanian team in 2001.
In the summer of 2007, Márton Venczel found a single tail vertebra in
latest Cretaceous sediments at "Râpa Rosie"
which he assigned to
Magyarosaurus, because it's the only known sauropod from this time and place.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Late Cretaceous
Stage: Maastrichtian
Age range: 71-66 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: 6 meters
Est. max. hip height: 1.5 meters
Est. max. weight: 1000 Kg
Diet: Herbivore
Size comparison
References
• Nopcsa F (1915) "Die Dinosaurier der siebenburgischen Landesteile Ungarns"
[Dinosaurs of the Siebenberger regions of Hungary].
Geol. Reichsanst. 23: 1-26.
• von Huene F (1932) "Die fossile Reptil-Ordnung Saurischia, ihre Entwicklung und Geschichte" [The Fossil Reptile Order Saurischia, Their Development and History].
Monographien zur Geologie und Palaeontologie, serie 1, 4(1-2): 1-361.
• Csiki Z (1999) "New evidence of armoured titanosaurids in the Late Cretaceous -
Magyarosaurus dacus from the Hateg Basin (Romania)".
Oryctos, Vol.2: 93-99, December 1999.
• Codrea VA, Murzea-Jipa C and Venczel M (2008) "
A Sauropod Vertebrae at Râpa Rosie (Alba District)".
Acta Palaeontologica Romaniae V.6 (2008), P 43-48.
• Paul GS (2010) "
The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs".
• Steina K, Csiki Z, Curry Rogers K, Weishampel DB, Redelstorff R, Carballido JL, and Martin Sander P (2010) "
Small body size and extreme cortical bone remodeling indicate phyletic dwarfism in Magyarosaurus dacus (Sauropoda: Titanosauria)".
PNAS, vol. 107, no. 20, 9258-9263.
• Benton MJ, Csiki Z, Grigorescu D, Redelstorff R, Sander PM, Stein K and Weishampel DB (2010) "
Dinosaurs and the island rule: The dwarfed dinosaurs from Ha?eg Island".
Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology, 293(3-4): 438-454. DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.01.026.
• Codrea V, Smith T, Dica P, Folie A, Garcia G,
et al. (2002) "Dinosaur egg nests, mammals and other vertebrates from a new Maastrichtian site of the Hateg Basin (Romania)".
CR Palevol 1: 173-180.
• Grellet-Tinner G, Codrea V, Folie A, Higa A and Smith T (2012) "
First evidence of reproductive adaptation to "island effect" of a dwarf Cretaceous Romanian titanosaur, with embryonic integument in ovo".
PLoS ONE 7(3): e32051.
• Antoneta Seghedi A, Andrâsanu A and Radan S (2017) "
The transylvanian dinosaur museum project: The contribution of geoecomar to valorize and promote the paleontological heritage of Romania".
Geo-Eco-Marina, 2017(23): 145-164.
• Mocho P, Pérez-García A and Codrea VA (2022) "New titanosaurian caudal remains provide insights on the sauropod diversity of the Ha?eg Island (Romania) during the Late Cretaceous".
Historical Biology. DOI: 10.1080/08912963.2022.2125807.
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
MAGYAROSAURUS :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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