Hațeg Island

While a variety of estimates regarding the prehistoric island's size have been given over the years, the places it at roughly during the Maastrichtian, or about the size of the modern island of Hispaniola. It was positioned just within the equatorial belt, at about 27°N latitude. Hațeg Island was probably located at least from the nearest land mass. To the northwest was an island corresponding to the Bohemian Massif, to the southeast was an island corresponding to the Balkan–Rhodope Massif (including the modern Rhodope Mountains region), and to the west was a large island corresponding to part of the modern Iberian land mass. The closest continental land mass were portions of the Austro-Alpine region to the west and the Adriatic region to the south. Hațeg Island itself was surrounded primarily by a deep marine basin, unlike some of the surrounding islands and land masses which were surrounded by shallow seas. ==Climate and ecology==

During the Maastrichtian, the climate of Hațeg Island was subtropical, with an average temperature of . Early rock layers are dominated by volcanic deposits, but these are absent in higher layers, indicating that volcanic activity dropped off during this time. ==Paleofauna==

hunting the herbivore Zalmoxes'' '' and the forest vegetation found in Hațeg Island About nine species of dinosaurs and several species of pterosaur are thought to have been indigenous to the island. The azhdarchid pterosaurs were rather common predators on this island. These insular reptiles differed from their continental relatives due to island syndrome, which describes the differences in morphology, ecology and physiology seen in insular species compared to their continental relatives. Many of them exhibit island dwarfism, becoming much smaller than their mainland relatives. For example the titanosaur, Magyarosaurus dacus, had a body mass of only while mainland titanosaurs like Patagotitan could reach . Conversely Hatzegopteryx exhibited island gigantism, becoming one of the largest pterosaurs ever to have lived. Similar to how extant bird species exhibit reduced wing size and reduced capacity for flight, Balaur bondoc appears to have secondarily lost its capacity for flight. Balaur is currently believed to be a basal avialan based on recent phylogenetic analyses, however, it was originally proposed to be a member of the avialan sister taxon, Deinonychosauria, based on its limb morphology. Its forelimbs were shorter and stockier than those of Avialae and so visibly incapable of powered flight, which led to this originally incorrect placement within the phylogeny. Mammals are almost exclusively represented by the endemic kogaionid multituberculates, an endemic group that evolved in the island's isolation and developed unique insectivorous habits, as well as a single eutherian remain. Remains of an indeterminate dromaeosaurid have also been found. Among these animals are included: • Albadraco tharmisensis, an azhdarchid • Allodaposuchus precedens, an eusuchian • Aprosuchus ghirai, a late surviving atoposaurid crocodyliform • Balaur bondoc, originally described as a dromaeosaurid but now believed to be an early example of insular flightless bird, possibly a junior synonym of Elopteryx • Barbatodon, a genus of multituberculate represented by at least three species • Barbatteiidae, a family of teioid lizards endemic to the island • Becklesius nopcsai, a paramacellodid lizard • Bicuspidon hatzegiensis, a polyglyphanodontian lizard • Bradycneme draculae, an alvarezsaurid • Elopteryx nopcsai, an avialan dinosaur == Constituent formations ==

The Hațeg Island record is preserved as a number of formations, dating from the late Campanian to the Maastrichtian. These include: • Sânpetru Formation • Densus Ciula Formation • Sebeș Formation • Sard Formation • Jibou Formation == See also ==