From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Haţeg (pronunciation in Romanian: /'hɑː.tseɪɡ/; German: Wallenthal; Hungarian: Hátszeg) is a town in Hunedoara County, Romania with a population of 12,507. Three villages are administered by the town: Nălaţvad, Silvaşu de Jos and Silvaşu de Sus.
Ţara Haţegului (Haţeg Country) is the region around Haţeg town. The fossils found in the Haţeg Country span over 300 million years of Earth's geologic history, showing tropical coral reefs and volcanic island in the Tethys Sea, dinosaurs, primitive mammals, birds, and flying reptiles (such as Hatzegopteryx, which was named for the region).
The Haţeg Island was an island during the Cretaceous Period where a dwarf species of sauropod dinosaur, Europasaurus holgeri, lived up to their extinction at the end of Cretaceous. Baron Franz Nopcsa, published articles about these Mesozoic era archosaurs on Haţeg Island. His studies led to his theory of insular dwarfism, the notion that "limited resources" on small islands can lead to a down-sizing of the indigenous vertebrate animals.
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