The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World: The Definitive Dinosaur Encyclopedia with Stunning Illustrations, Embark on a Prehistoric Quest!

by Steve Brusatte

The Romanian raptor was stockier than Velociraptor, many of the bones of its arms and legs were fused together, and it had even withered its hand into a conjoined mass of stubby fingers and wristbones. It was a new breed of meat-eating dinosaur, and a few months later we gave it a fitting scientific name: Balaur bondoc; the first word is an archaic Romanian term for dragon and the second means “stocky.” Balaur bondoc was the top dog of the Late Cretaceous European islands. Less tyrant than assassin, Balaur would employ its arsenal of claws to subdue the cow-size sauropods and mini-duckbills and armored dinosaurs marooned in the middle of the rising Atlantic. As best we can tell, it was the largest carnivorous dinosaur on the islands.