Zalmoxes
Zal-mocks-eesName 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
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
