Episode 297 is all about Balaur, the “stocky dragon” from Hateg island, famous for its pair of sickle-shaped claws on each foot.

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

• The “Dinosaur born from fire” Aratasaurus was described in Brazil source
• The Curiosity Rover on Mars has a new drill target that the team has named Mary Anning source
• A recent storm in Glasgow, Virginia damaged a dinosaur sculpture, but the locals have already repaired it source
• A new article explores how the Cabazon dinosaurs ended up on the I-10 in Southern California source
• The Bass Coast Shire is looking to make a 50km dinosaur themed walking trail to promote the fossils found in Victoria, Australia source
• There is a new B-movie called Ebola Rex, but don’t expect too much source
• The cute dinosaur theme park simulation game Parkasaurus will be getting a v1 release on August 13 source

The dinosaur of the day: Balaur

• Theropod that lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now Romania (Ha?eg Island)
• Similar in size to Velociraptor
• Estimated to be around 5.9 to 6.9 ft (1.8 to 2.1 m) long
• Had two large, retractable, sickle-shaped claws on each foot (instead of one, like Velociraptor)
• Re-evolved a functional first toe, to help support its weight, which also had a large sickle claw
• First toe rotated forward and supported the second sickle claw
• Had short, stocky feet and legs, and large muscle attachment areas on the pelvis, so probably was strong, but not that fast
• Limbs were proportionally shorter and heavier compared to relatives
• Curved toe claws are not too curved (less curved than dromaeosaurids, and similar in shape and curvature as Mesozoic birds)
• Feet and legs were short and stocky, with fused bones
• Pubic bones are swept back and bow outwards
• Secondarily flightless
• Third digit on its hand was small and probably nonfunctional, basically only had two fingers on each hand
• Type species is Balaur bondoc
• Genus name refers to a many-headed dragon in Romanian folklore, sometimes thought to have wings (usually evil)
• Species name means “stocky”
• Full name is “stocky dragon”
• Named stocky because of its muscles compared to relatives
• Described in 2010 by Zoltán Csiki and others
• Found two partial skeletons (Ha?eg Island)
• First fossils found in 1997 by Dan Grigorescu, (parts of the front limbs), though was thought to be an oviraptorosaur (arm was so strange it was hard to correctly piece together)
• Partial skeleton found in 2009, which became the holotype. Found by geologist and paleontologist Mátyás Vremir (known for finding many Transylvanian fossils, who recently passed away, July 2020 at age 50)
• Found in the Sebe? Formation, red floodplain mudstone
• Found vertebrae, a lot of the pectoral and pelvic girdles, and a lot of the limbs
• 1997 fossils were from an individual about 45% longer than the holotype, and was found in a younger stratum
• Csiki and others said its body was “a dramatic example of aberrant morphology developed in island-dwelling taxa”
• Ha?eg Island is known as the “island of dwarf dinosaurs” (like the dwarf sauropod Magyarosaurus)
• Strangeness could be because it’s an island dinosaur (“island effect”), though it wasn’t small
• Hard to classify. Over the years has been classified as dromaeosaurid, basal avialan, but nothing definitive
• No skull found, so unclear if it was carnivorous or herbivorous
• Originally thought to be carnivorous, because originally thought to be closely related to Velociraptor
• Csiki thought it could have been an apex predator on the island, and may have used its claws to slash prey
• More recent studies, by Denver Fowler and others, found that the feet of paravians likely used their claws to pin prey to the ground, and used their proto-wings to stay on top of their prey, and then eat their prey while it was still alive, like some modern birds. Based on the large first claw and fused metatarsus (group of bones in the foot), Balaur was bird-like and probably a predator
• Andrea Cau suggested Balaur may have been an omnivore or herbivore, and that’s why it had strange features. One example is it’s missing the third digit (finger) on its hands. The claw and large first toe could have helped support its weight. Also Balaur was short and stocky, with a wide pubis, so may have had large intestines to digest plant matter. Cau called this the “Dodoraptor” model. But after Fowler’s research, Cau said that Balaur may have been a predator
• However, in 2015, Cau and others did a phylogenetic analysis, and while inconclusive, found Balaur was closely related to avialan herbivores, such as Sapeornis and Jeholornis, and that the the broad pelvic canal, and other features, were “a combination of features convergently acquired only by the non-predatory clade Therizinosauridae among Mesozoic theropods”, and Balaur may have been herbivorous
• Hands were atrophied, not very useful, so would have used feet for prey
• Claws may have helped with climbing and perching, not slashing prey
• Had lots of bird-like features, like the fusion of its limb bones, the big first toes, the first toe claw being similar in size to the second toe claw, etc.

Fun Fact: Ghost taxa (or ghost lineages) exist in virtually every animal group. It’s basically any gap in the fossil record.