The Late Cretaceous was a time of tremendous global change, as the final stages of the Age of Dinosaurs were shaped by climate and sea level fluctuations and witness to marked paleogeographic and faunal changes, before the end-Cretaceous bolide impact. The terrestrial fossil record of Late Cretaceous Europe is becoming increasingly better understood, based largely on intensive fieldwork over the past two decades, promising new insights into latest Cretaceous faunal evolution. We review the terrestrial Late Cretaceous record from Europe and discuss its importance for understanding the paleogeography, ecology, evolution, and extinction of land-dwelling vertebrates. We review the major Late Cretaceous faunas from Austria, Hungary, France, Spain, Portugal, and Romania, as well as more fragmentary records from elsewhere in Europe. We discuss the paleogeographic background and history of assembly of these faunas, and argue that they are comprised of an endemic ‘core’ supplemented with various immigration waves. These faunas lived on an island archipelago, and we describe how this insular setting led to ecological peculiarities such as low diversity, a preponderance of primitive taxa, and marked changes in morphology (particularly body size dwarfing). We conclude by discussing the importance of the European record in understanding the end-Cretaceous extinction and show that there is no clear evidence that dinosaurs or other groups were undergoing long-term declines in Europe prior to the bolide impact.

Synopsis The dinosaurs of the Hateg Basin of Transylvania (late Maastrichtian; western Romania) include Theropoda, Sauropoda, Ornithopoda and Ankylosauria. Of these, one of the most enigmatic taxa is the ornithopod that Franz Baron Nopcsa originally described as Mochlodon suessi and M. robustus in 1902. These two species have come to be regarded as a single species of Rhabdodon, R. robustus, which is distinct from R. priscus from the Late Cretaceous of southern France and northern Spain. This study provides a detailed anatomical revision of the Rhabdodon material that was described originally by Nopcsa during the early decades of the 20th century. It also adds information on material discovered in the Hateg area of Romania since the 1930s. A phylogenetic analysis of basal euornithopods indicates that the non‐hadrosaurid material from Hateg comprises two distinct, but congeneric, species. These two species can be distinguished unambiguously from R. priscus. A new genus Zalmoxes is established for the Romanian ornithopod, comprising Z. robustus comb. nov. (the type‐species of the genus) and Z. shqiperorum sp. nov. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that the two species of Zalmoxes and R. priscus are united in the monophyletic clade Rhabdodontidae (nov.). Rhabdodontidae constitutes the sibling clade to Iguanodontia. R. septimanicus, M. suessi, and the Villeveyrac Rhabdodon also appear to be members of Rhabdodontidae. The evolutionary implications of this phylogenetic analysis include the recognition of a ghost lineage, extending from the most recent common ancestor of Rhabdodontidae and Iguanodontia, which extends for 73 million years. This extraordinarily long ghost lineage duration may reflect considerable gaps in the history of this group or the geographical isolation of Rhabdodontidae in Europe during much of the Cretaceous period. The area of origin of the Rhabdodontidae + Iguanodontia clade may be North America, while the common ancestor of Rhabdodontidae dispersed to Europe, at that time a marine‐dominated region with tectonically‐active terrestrial habitats. Adult individuals of Z. robustus are smaller than either of its two closest relatives, Z. shqiperorum and R. priscus, within the Rhabdodontidae, or with many species of Iguanodontia and, therefore, is considered a possible paedomorphic dwarf.

Madtsoiidae are a group of archaic snakes, widely distributed in the Upper Cretaceous of Gondwanan landmasses (South America, Madagascar, India, Africa), but otherwise reported outside Gondwana based only on scarce material from a few southern European localities. Here, we describe associated snake remains from uppermost Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) beds of the Haţeg Basin, Romania, as a new small-madtsoiid taxon, Nidophis insularis, gen. et sp. nov. Nidophis, represented by a large number of well-preserved vertebrae and ribs that apparently belonged to one individual, is one of the best-known Cretaceous madtsoiids, and the most completely documented member of the family from Europe. Phylogenetic analyses place the new taxon within a moderately supported Madtsoiidae, closely related to Herensugea from the Upper Cretaceous of Spain. The two European taxa, together with other small madtsoiids, are recovered as the sister taxon to a second madtsoiid clade including large-to-gigantic forms such as Madtsoia, Wonambi, and Yurlunggur. The presence of these small madtsoiids, together with that of Menarana, in the uppermost Cretaceous of Europe, suggests that early widespread distribution of madtsoiids, extending over the southern part of Europe, instead of late northward immigration from Gondwanan landmasses, as proposed previously, might account for the paleobiogeographic distribution of Cretaceous Madstoiidae. SUPPLEMENTAL DATA—Supplemental materials are available for this article for free at www.tandfonline.com/UJVP

Sauropods were the largest terrestrial tetrapods (>10⁵kg) in Earth's history and grew at rates that rival those of extant mammals.Magyarosaurus dacus, a titanosaurian sauropod from the Upper Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of Romania, is known exclusively from small individuals (<10³kg) and conflicts with the idea that all sauropods were massive. The diminutiveM. dacuswas a classical example of island dwarfism (phyletic nanism) in dinosaurs, but a recent study suggested that the small Romanian titanosaurs actually represent juveniles of a larger-bodied taxon. Here we present strong histological evidence thatM. dacuswas indeed a dwarf (phyletic nanoid). Bone histological analysis of an ontogenetic series ofMagyarosauruslimb bones indicates that even the smallestMagyarosaurusspecimens exhibit a bone microstructure identical to fully mature or old individuals of other sauropod taxa. Comparison of histologies with large-bodied sauropods suggests thatMagyarosaurushad an extremely reduced growth rate, but had retained high basal metabolic rates typical for sauropods. The uniquely decreased growth rate and diminutive body size inMagyarosauruswere adaptations to life on a Cretaceous island and show that sauropod dinosaurs were not exempt from general ecological principles limiting body size.

Islands are noted for the occurrence of aberrant, endemic, and dwarfed taxa (the “island effect”). Late Cretaceous vertebrate assemblages of Romania and elsewhere in Europe are classic examples of island faunas in the fossil record, and are characterized by dwarfed herbivorous dinosaurs and other endemic taxa that are noticeably primitive relative to their mainland contemporaries. Fossils of the predators inhabiting the European paleoislands, however, are exceptionally rare and fragmentary. We describe a new dromaeosaurid theropod, based on an articulated skeleton from the Maastrichtian of Romania, which represents the most complete predatory dinosaur from the middle to Late Cretaceous of Europe. This taxon is characterized by a peculiar body plan, most notably extensive fusion in the hand and distal hindlimb, a highly retroverted pelvis with enlarged femoral muscle attachments, and a pair of hyperextensive pedal claws. However, unlike the island-dwelling herbivorous dinosaurs, its closest relatives are contemporary similar-sized Laurasian taxa, indicating faunal connections between Asia and the European islands late into the Cretaceous. This theropod provides support for the aberrant nature of the Late Cretaceous European island-dwelling dinosaurs, but indicates that predators on these islands were not necessarily small, geographically endemic, or primitive.