Balaur bondoc

Balaur bondoc is a species of paravian theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period, found in what is now Romania. Its name comes from Romanian folklore, in which balaur means dragon and bondoc means stocky, referring to the animal robust build. The genus was first described in August 2010, based on two partial skeletons recovered from Cretaceous rock formations in Romania that correspond to Hateg Island, an ancient subtropical island in the Tethys Sea about 70 million years ago, nicknamed the Island of the Dwarf Dinosaurs for its many small-bodied species. Balaur shows a reduction in flight capacity similar to modern flightless birds such as ratites and extinct species like the moa and dodo, and its classification is debated, with researchers proposing it as either a basal avialan or a member of Velociraptorinae or Unenlagiinae.