Zalmoxes

dinosaur · ornithopod · Cretaceous · Romania

Tiny compared to T-Rex. Zalmoxes was a small ornithopod dinosaur, much smaller than the giant sauropods or meat-eating predators that lived at the same time. It was one of the most common vertebrates in its Transylvanian home during the latest Cretaceous period.

Lived at the end. Zalmoxes lived during the Maastrichtian age, which was the very last chunk of the Cretaceous period, just before all the non-bird dinosaurs went extinct about 66 million years ago.

Named after a god. The name Zalmoxes comes from Zalmoxis, a deity worshipped by the ancient Dacian people who once lived in the same region where these dinosaur fossils were found. This was a cool way scientists honored local history.

From old Transylvania. Zalmoxes lived in what is now Romania, in a region called Transylvania. Scientists have found many fossils of this dinosaur in the rocks there, making it one of the most common dinosaurs known from that place and time.

Renamed several times. Scientists originally called this dinosaur Mochlodon robustum in 1899, then changed it to Rhabdodon, and finally to Zalmoxes in 2003. The name robustus refers to how sturdy and solid its bones were.