Name meaning: Thracian deity Zalmoxis

Time Period: Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) 70-66 Mya

Locations: Romania-Transylvania-Sânpetru Formation

Taxonomy:Ornithischia-‬Ornithopoda-Rhabdodontidae

Subspecies: Z. ‬robustus Z. shqiperorum

Characteristics ~ ~ ~ ~

To be honest the main reason I've selected Zalmoxes is because it’s the only species I think is interesting enough aside from maybe Zhejiangopterus that starts with the letter Z meaning this website has a creature for every letter of the alphabet. Zalmoxes was on the smaller side of hadrosaurs Z. shqiperorum was slightly larger than Z. ‬robustus. Zalmoxes is an example of Insular dwarfism when species evolve to be smaller due to limited island resources because of this Zalmoxes only grew to around 8 feet long. 2 Teeth from an unknown theropod still assigned to Megalosaurus from the Sânpetru Formation but aside from that no large carnivores are found there. That's because giant azdarchids specifically Hatzegopteryx fly in and fill the niche of apex predator having Zalmoxies as prey.

History & Fossils ~ ~ ~ ~

Zalmoxes is originally from a species called Molchodin As of recently the species Z. shqiperorum was reanalyzed and found to be a new genus of ceratopsian named Ferenceratops shqiperorum. Giving interesting implications for other Rhabododontid dinosaurs

Media Deptictions ~ ~ ~ ~

Prehistoric Planet Zalmoxes only appear as babies, this is because they are nothing but fodder dinosaurs for other larger reptiles like Hatzegopteryx and Mosasaurus they are relatively cute and the scalation on them is beautiful. They don’t get to do all to much

Extras: ~ ~ ~ ~

Prehistoric Planet [2022 - 2023] - Zalmoxes Screen Time

Zalmoxes photoscan by Paleobiome on Sketchfab

Articles:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248623465_Osteology_and_phylogeny_of_Zalmoxes_n_g_an_unusual_Euornithopod_dinosaur_from_the_latest_Cretaceous_of_Romania (2003)

A Catalog of Zalmoxes (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) Specimens from the Upper Cretaceous Nălaţ-Vad Locality, Haţeg Basin, Romania (2017)

Reappraisal of the braincase anatomy of the ornithopod dinosaurs Telmatosaurus and Zalmoxes from the Upper Cretaceous of the Haţeg Basin (Romania) and the taxonomic reassessment of some previously referred specimens (2022)