Vlad Tepes would not be happy. They named a dinosaur after him - but it was so nondescript the discoverers of its bones thought them to belong to an owl.

Bradycneme draculae, the sole species of a genus whose identity is still dubious (it may be the same as Elopteryx), is known from a single leg found in the Transylvanian region of Romania way back in 1923. Fast forward half a century or so to 1975: a couple of paleontologists named Harrison and Walker decided that this fragmentary fossil belonged not to a large bird, but a small dinosaur. Bradycneme means something like "slow leg" or "heavy leg," and, well, you know which bloodthirsty impaler was honored with draculae.

Anyway, Bradycneme was both bipedal and carnivorous, just like Vlad. It didn't get very big - I haven't seen any definitive numbers regarding its size, but a comparative chart makes it appear only a couple of meters long. There doesn't seem to be much information on it out there, which isn't likely to change until somebody finds more of its bones.

Order: Saurischia
Suborder: Theropoda
Infraorder: Tetanurae
Microorder: Coelurosauria
Family: Trodontidae (uncertain)

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