Jianu Coralia-Maria - Transylvanian Dinosaurs

Transylvanian Dinosaurs

Transylvanian Dinosaurs

DAVID B. WEISHAMPEL and CORALIA-MARIA JIANU

2011 The Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2011
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Weishampel, David B., 1952
Transylvanian dinosaurs / by David B. Weishampel and Coralia-Maria Jianu.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4214-0027-3 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-4214-0027-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. DinosaursRomaniaTransylvania. 2. DinosaursEvolution.

I. Jianu, Coralia-Maria. II. Title.
QE861.9.R62T739 2011
567.9094984dc22 2010047481

A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

All artwork by D. B. Weishampel, unless otherwise indicated.

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The gift of life, its a twist of fate

Its a roll of the die

Its a free lunch, a free ride

But Natures got rules and Natures got laws

And if you cross her, look out!

Laurie Anderson, Strange Angels (1989)

What follows is dedicated to Jack Horner.

Books like this do not spring fully formed from the forehead of Jove. Rather, they are most often inspired by the work of others, coming together from fragments of old and new ideas that careen from right brain to left, scrambling and unscrambling through international mail systems and e-mails. Parts die and parts survive as the goals of the book become more tangible.

Little could he have known it, but Franz Baron Nopcsa and his quest to understand the dinosaurs emanating from his backyard have led this American and this Romanian to contemplate how the Transylvanian dinosaurs fit into the Mesozoic scheme of things. Perhaps hed be pleased by our efforts to ask big questions that demand eclectic and multidisciplinary answers. The Baron had a lot to say in his relatively short life, and weve found that it pays to listen to him.

Our studies have taken us many places as we followed in Nopcsas footsteps, investigated new dinosaur material in Europe and elsewhere, and stumbled back and forth through the dust-coated central European evolutionary biology of the early twentieth century and the twists and turns of contemporary systematics, developmental biology, and evolutionary theory. In doing so, we have encountered many friends, fellow sojourners, and mentors, all of whom we would like to thank here.

We begin by thanking the members of our field crewsespecially Cristi and Puiu from Snpetru, Bogdan Scarlat (Bob), Ovidiu Hebler (Ova), Dan uiag (uu), Cristina Circo, and Sebastian Domnariu; the Italians Fabio Dalla Vecchia, Davide Rigo, and Cezare Brizio; and, of course, the international team, mostly Dutch: Anne Schulp, Remmert Schouten, Matthew Deeks, Moritz von Graevenitz, Jac and Emile Philip-pens, and Roos de Klerkfor their hard work, most excellent partying, and camaraderie. Mulumim, li ringraziamo, dank u wel! And a special ksznm to Zoltn Csiki, master of the Bucharest bones, for his exquisite knowledge, his friendship, and his ever-present yes, but

Mulumim also to other Romanian colleagues: to Dan Grigorescu from Universitatea din Bucureti who originally invited the senior author to Romania and shared a few field seasons with him; to Ioan Groza (now deceased) for establishing the dinosaur collections at Muzeul Civilizaiei Dacice i Romane Deva; to Doinel Vulc, the most able paleontologist in Snpetru; to Nicolae Mszaros (now deceased) and Vlad Codrea from Universitatea Babe-Bolyai in Cluj-Napoca for their own work on the Transylvanian assemblages and also for their help; and to Costin Rdulescu and Petre Samson (both now deceased) from Institutul Speologic Emil Racovi in Bucharest for making it possible for us to study their spectacular multituberculate material and for their encouragement.

For the possibility of examining the Transylvanian dinosaurs and the Nopcsa archives in their respective institutions, as well as for the pleasure of enjoying summertime in Budapest with them, we thank Lszl Kordos and Jozef Hla from the Magyar llami Fldtani Intzet, and Istvn Fzy and Horvth Csaba from the Magyar Termszettudomnyi Muzeum. Nagyon szpen ksznm!

Nonetheless, as Nopcsa would have wanted it, the best of all collections of the Late Cretaceous dinosaurs from Transylvania still resides in London, where they were originally presented to the (then) British Museum (Natural History) in 1906 and 1923. At his death, Nopcsas paleontological archives were bequeathed to this same institution. Angela C. Milner and Sandra Chapman now mind the Nopcsa fossil and archival collections, and we thank them for the opportunity to feast upon the fossils and memorabilia, including Nopcsas brain.

Thanks also go to our French colleagues Jean Le Loeuff, Eric Buffetaut, Marie Pincemaille, Yves Laurent, Franois Sirugue, and Patrick Mechan, mostly from Espraza, Montpellier, and Aix-en-Provence, for the best cooking and wine that the great land of southern France offers and for sharing with us the Late Cretaceous riches they have gleaned from the rocks at Bellevue, Corbires, and Le Mas dAzil. Jean Le Loeuff also provided the inspiration for the title of . Merci, tout le monde!

We especially thank Angela D. Buscalioni and Francisco Ortega from the Universidad Autnoma de Madrid for their wisdom on things crocodilian, for their friendship, and for the ride to Dals hometownmuchas gracias y viva Figueres! We also thank Xabier Pereda-Suberbiola from the Universidad del Pas Vasco / Euskal Herrikom Unibertsitatea, Bilbao, and the Universit Paris VI for his work on Struthiosaurus and other European ankylosaurs and for his interest in the life and times of Franz Nopcsa. Eskerrik asko, Xabier.

Vienna, Nopcsas abode for most of his life, including his university years, is the home of important dinosaur material from the Gosau Beds in eastern Austria. Gernot Rabeder, Norbert Vvra, Doris Nagel, and Karl Rauscher from Universitt Wien provided us with the opportunity to study this material and also forged our connections with the various archives in Vienna, which contain the most extensive records of Nopcsas life. Vielen dank fr alle Ihre Hilfe.

Last, but certainly not least, we are grateful to Jii Kvaek at the Nrodn Muzeum in Prague, Kafkas city of dark contingency, for enabling us to examine the pterosaurs and other fossil material in his care. Dkuju mockrt.

Looking beyond the field and museum collections that immediately relate to Transylvanian dinosaurs and the Baron, there are many people who have helped us to explore the nature of history and to see the tapestry we were constructing from new perspectives. Thanks go to Anne Schulp (again), John Jagt, and Douwe Th. de Graaf (the Maastricht Guys), and Marcin Machaski from the Instytut Paleobiologii in Warsaw, for somehow putting up with our demanding, raucous, and often-times unpredictable behavior, all for the honorable sake of creating the traveling museum exhibition called Dinosaurs, Ammonites, and Asteroids: Life and Death in the Maastrichtian. We also thank Eric Mulder from the Museum Natura Docet in Denekamp, the Netherlands, for keeping the light shining on the truly Maastrichtian dinosaurs, those from Maastricht.