Last Updated on aprilie 14, 2014 NEVER mind Dracula and his vampires; the really terrifying beasts of Transylvania were the rich varieties of dinosaurs that once stalked the land that is now Romania.
Every year he and his team visit Sebe in southern Transylvania to unearth more clues to the species that became extinct after an asteroid hit Earth 66 million years ago.
At that time, with sea levels much higher, the area around 200 miles north-west of the capital Bucharest would have been an island, and that makes it particularly interesting.
Dr Brusatte explains: “We have worked there every year for five years as it is one of the best places in the world to find dinosaurs. There are peculiar dinosaurs that lived right before the asteroid hit and they lived on the island, so a lot of them are dwarves and a lot of them have really weird features.”
They do not get much weirder, or more fearsome, than the Balaur, which his team discovered in 2010.
“This animal is a tiny, poodle-sized thing that had two huge claws on each of its feet,” says Dr Brusatte.
“We called it Balaur, which is the old Romanian name for dragon.”
Dr Brusatte, 29, who grew up in Chicago but now lives in Edinburgh and lectures at the city’s university, was a consultant for Walking With Dinosaurs The Movie. (source: express.co.uk)
A true enthusiast, he stresses: “Ever since dinosaurs were found 200 years ago, people are enthralled by this question: what happened to the dinosaurs?
“Someone is finding a new species of dinosaur about once a week on average. It is incredible.
“To work in a place like Romania with local scientists looking for really neat fossils is great. When we go back and just don’t know what we’re going to find. That is the joy.
“Dinosaurs are really charismatic animals and can answer the really important questions about how our planet works.”
