Bradycneme draculae

Bradycneme (meaning "ponderous leg") is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous-aged (Maastrichtian) Sânpetru Formation of the Hațeg Basin, Transylvania, Romania. The type species is Bradycneme draculae, known only from a partial right lower leg (specimen BMNH A1588), which its original describers believed it came from a giant owl.

==History== In 1975, Harrison and Walker described two "bradycnemids" from Romania: B. draculae and Heptasteornis andrewsi. These specimens had initially been assigned to the supposed pelecaniform bird Elopteryx nopcsai. The generic name, Bradycneme, comes from the Ancient Greek (), meaning "slow, ponderous" and (), meaning "leg", as the holotype, BMNH A1588, a wide distal tibiotarsus found by Maud Eleanora Seeley, would be very stout if the animal had been an owl, with a body height of about . The specific name, draculae, is derived from Romanian '', meaning "the dragon," and refers to Dracula.