# Unprecedented Dinosaur Fossil Concentration Discovered in Transylvania’s Hațeg Basin
A groundbreaking paleontological discovery in Romania’s Hațeg Basin has revealed an extraordinary fossil site containing more than 100 vertebrate fossils per square meter, fundamentally changing our understanding of dinosaur preservation in the region. After five years of fieldwork, the Valiora Dinosaur Research Group—a collaboration between Hungarian and Romanian scientists—identified the K2 site, which yielded over 800 vertebrate fossils from less than five square meters, making it the richest fossil location ever documented in the area. This exceptional concentration, recently detailed in PLOS ONE, includes large dinosaur bones stacked almost directly atop one another, representing a significant departure from the typically scattered fossil finds previously known from Transylvania.
The remarkable preservation at K2 resulted from specific geological conditions approximately 72 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period. Research indicates that a small lake in the subtropical environment periodically experienced flash floods that carried animal carcasses from surrounding areas. As floodwaters entered the lake basin, their rapid slowdown caused transported remains to accumulate in deltaic deposits along the shoreline, creating this unprecedented bone concentration. The site represents the oldest known vertebrate accumulation in the Hațeg Basin, providing crucial insights into the earliest composition of the region’s dinosaur fauna and how these ecosystems evolved over time.
Among the most significant finds are several partial dinosaur skeletons that remained anatomically associated, including remains from two distinct plant-eating species. The discovery includes a common two-meter-long rhabdodontid dinosaur, but more importantly, features the first well-preserved titanosaurian sauropod skeletons ever found in Transylvania. These long-necked dinosaur fossils promise to reshape scientific understanding of how this species fits into the broader evolutionary family tree and represents a major breakthrough for European paleontology.
This extraordinary fossil assemblage is helping researchers reconstruct how dinosaur communities evolved across Eastern Europe during the final million years before their extinction. By comparing these oldest Hațeg Basin fossils with younger Transylvanian sites, scientists can trace evolutionary pathways and ecosystem changes, revealing how Late Cretaceous environments responded to climatic and geological forces. The ongoing analysis of these discoveries continues to refine our understanding of dinosaur life in ancient Europe and the complex ecosystems that existed near the end of the age of dinosaurs.
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Forrás: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/12/251222044100.htm.