Dino card No. 0790 of 2,027

Hatzegopteryx

Say it: HAT-zeh-GOP-ter-ix

Name means: “Hațeg basin wing”1

Ate: MeatFlying reptilesLate CretaceousNot technically a dinosaur

Hatzegopteryx was a giant flying reptile that lived on an island in what is now Romania. It had a huge, strong skull and a short, muscular neck, and it was probably the top predator on its island home.1

Fun fact: pterosaurs flew over the dinosaurs, but they were their cousins, not dinosaurs themselves.

Lived

72 to 66 million years ago6

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Transylvania, Romania (Hațeg Basin)1 2

Food

Meat1

Wingspan

10 to 12 m1 3

estimated

Weight

180 kg to 250 kg1

estimated

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How wide were its wings?

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 8 big dogs

wings as wide as 2.5 cars in a rowas heavy as 50 watermelons

How big was Hatzegopteryx compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

cool stuff

Fun facts

Hatzegopteryx had a skull that was about 2.5 meters (8 feet) long, one of the largest skulls of any non-marine animal.1

Its neck was only 1.5 meters (5 feet) long, which is half the length of other giant pterosaurs with the same wingspan.1

The bones of Hatzegopteryx were filled with tiny pits and hollows, making them lightweight but strong, like Styrofoam.1

It lived on Hațeg Island, a subtropical island in the ancient Tethys Sea, where dinosaurs were small due to island dwarfism.1

Hatzegopteryx was probably the top predator on its island because there were no large meat-eating dinosaurs there.1

The first fossils of Hatzegopteryx were found in the late 1970s by students, but were at first mistaken for dinosaur bones.1

AI-made picture of Hatzegopteryx — An AI-made picture of how Hatzegopteryx might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

you asked

Most asked questions about Hatzegopteryx

?How big was Hatzegopteryx?

It had a wingspan of about 10 to 12 meters (33 to 39 feet), making it one of the biggest pterosaurs ever.1

?Could Hatzegopteryx fly?

Yes, it could fly. Its wing bones were similar to other flying pterosaurs, and its skull was lightweight thanks to a spongy internal structure.1 4

?What did Hatzegopteryx eat?

It was a predator that probably ate dwarf dinosaurs like titanosaurs and iguanodontians, and it could tackle prey too big to swallow whole.1

?Is Hatzegopteryx a dinosaur?

No, it is a pterosaur, which is a flying reptile and not a dinosaur.1

?When did Hatzegopteryx live?

It lived about 72 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous Period.1

?Where was Hatzegopteryx found?

Its fossils were found in Transylvania, Romania, on what was once Hațeg Island.1

?How heavy was Hatzegopteryx?

Its weight has been estimated at around 250 kilograms (550 pounds).4

?Was Hatzegopteryx bigger than Quetzalcoatlus?

It was about the same size or slightly smaller. Both had wingspans around 10 to 12 meters, but Hatzegopteryx had a shorter, stronger neck.1

?Why did Hatzegopteryx have a short neck?

Its short, thick neck was very strong and helped it hunt large prey, like dwarf dinosaurs, by catching them.1 5

?Could Hatzegopteryx swim?

Nobody knows for sure, but it probably spent most of its time on land hunting, like other azhdarchid pterosaurs.1

Ask Rex about Hatzegopteryx

Rex only answers questions about this page. 10 questions a month.

Rex is an AI and can make mistakes. He runs on servers in the EU and questions are never saved. Never type your name or other personal things.

Myth buster

Myth: Hatzegopteryx was too heavy to fly.

Truth: Its bones had a spongy, lightweight internal structure that made the skull strong but light enough for flight.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Hatzegopteryx
Named by: Buffetaut et al. 20026
Group: Flying reptiles
Family / clade: Azhdarchidae6
Classification: Pterosauria > Pterodactyloidea > Azhdarchidae6
Age of the rocks: 72 to 66 million years (Maastrichtian)6
Rock formations: Densuș-Ciula, Sebeş, Râul Mare6
Countries: Romania6
Fossil records: 4 in the Paleobiology Database6
Discovery: Hatzegopteryx was named in 2002 by paleontologists Eric Buffetaut, Dan Grigorescu, and Zoltan Csiki, based on skull fragments and a wing bone found in Romania.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how wide its wingspan was, with estimates ranging from 10 to 12 meters (33 to 39 feet).1

Where the facts come from

Hatzegopteryx (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
A new giant pterosaur with a robust skull from the latest cretaceous of Romania (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Eons | When a Giant Pterosaur Ruled the European Islands | Season 4 | Episode 23 | PBS (pbs.org)
Neck biomechanics indicate that giant Transylvanian azhdarchid pterosaurs were short-necked arch predators (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Hatzegopteryx in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

Rex is hungry! Dino Wiki is a dad's project for his dino-loving son, free with no ads. Grown-ups can feed Rex a snack to help keep it online.Feed Rex