Hațeg Island

Common card · No. 279299

Hațeg Island was a large offshore island in the Tethys Sea which existed during the Late Cretaceous period, probably from the Cenomanian to the Maastrichtian ages. It was situated in an area corresponding to the region around modern-day Hațeg, Hunedoara County, Romania. Maastrichtian fossils of small-sized dinosaurs have been found in the island's rocks. It was formed mainly by tectonic uplift during the early Alpine orogeny, caused by the collision of the African plate and Eurasian plate towards the end of the Cretaceous. There is no real present-day analog, but overall, the island of Hainan (off the coast of China) is perhaps closest as regards climate, geology and topography, though still not a particularly good match. The vegetation, for example, was of course entirely distinct from today, as was the fauna. Places like Louisiana and Mississippi and other parts of the American Deep South are an even closer climatic and ecological match with a subtropical climate, wet summer season, and...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Image rendering courtesy of Mark Witton; map imagery by kind permission of Ron Blakey, Colorado Plateau Geosystems, Inc. Outdated Hatzegopteryx silhouette has been replaced with newer one by Witton:[…, CC BY 2.5