Country
Fossil hunting in Romania
Romania's dinosaurs are small because they lived on an island. The Hateg basin preserves a Late Cretaceous fauna of dwarfed species that occur nowhere else. The geopark that interprets them uses seven visiting centers instead of one.
Hateg Island lay in the Tethys sea about 70 million years ago. Isolation reduced body size among the dinosaurs, and the dwarf dinosaurs of the basin are the core of the geopark's scientific claim. Not everything shrank, and the pterosaur Hatzegopteryx stood as tall as a giraffe. The protected area covers about 112,400 hectares in Hunedoara county.
Rather than build a single hub, the geopark spread interpretation across seven themed centers in different villages. The Dinosaur Valley trail runs from the House of Dwarf Dinosaurs to the La Scoaba geosite, where the first dinosaur fossils in the area came to light.
1 fossil site
Updated 11 September 2026
Frequently asked questions
- What dinosaurs lived in the Hateg basin?
- A Late Cretaceous island fauna about 70 million years old, reduced in body size by isolation. The dwarf dinosaurs of Hateg Island are found only in this region.
- How do you visit the Hateg geopark?
- Through a network of seven themed visiting centers across the basin rather than one hub. The Dinosaur Valley trail connects the House of Dwarf Dinosaurs to the La Scoaba geosite.