Photo from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Related to Velociraptor, Balaur bondoc is a very late dromaesaurid that “has given researchers a window into what European predators looked like in the final years of the Age of Dinosaurs.”
It lived about 90 to 65 million years ago, when southern Europe was a series of small islands. Standing about two meters tall, Balaur bondoc had atrophied hands and used huge claws on its lower limbs to disembowel prey.
Bits and pieces of Balaur bondoc were found ten years ago, but researchers weren’t sure what dinosaur they belonged to.
The findings were reported in Monday’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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