Zalmoxes

Zalmoxes Temporal range: 70–66 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Skeleton of Zalmoxes shqiperorum, Brussels
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Dinosauria
Order:	†Ornithischia
Suborder:	†Ornithopoda
Family:	†Rhabdodontidae
Genus:	†Zalmoxes Weishampel et al., 2003
Type species
Zalmoxes robustus (Nopcsa, 1899)
Species
Z. robustus (Nopcsa, 1899) Z. shqiperorum Weishampel et al., 2003

Zalmoxes is an extinct genus of rhabdodontid ornithopod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Romania. The genus is known from specimens first named as the species Mochlodon robustum in 1899 by Franz Nopcsa before being reclassified as Rhabdodon robustum by him in 1915. In 1990 this name was corrected to Rhabdodon robustus by George Olshevsky, and in 2003 the species was once more reclassified, this time as the type species Zalmoxes robustus. Zalmoxes refers to the Dacian deity Zalmoxis, and robustus to the robustness of the remains. In 2003 another species was named, Zalmoxes shqiperorum, named for the Albanian name for Albania.

Zalmoxes was first known from numerous fossils found in Transylvania, which were named as the species Mochlodon robustum by Baron Franz Nopcsa in 1899. The species name referred to its robust build. In 1915 Nopcsa renamed the species as Rhabdodon robustum, amended by in 2003 by David B. Weishampel, Coralia-Maria Jianu, Zoltan Csiki and David B. Norman. Weishampel et al. (2003) published a paper on new remains from Romania, which they found to represent a new species. They found R. robustus was sufficiently different from Rhabdodon, and thus named the new genus Zalmoxes for the former. The genus refers to the Dacian deity Zalmoxis (sometimes spelled Zalmoxes), who travelled to ancient Romania and ended up being deified as a god. In addition, Weishampel et al. named the new specimens Zalmoxes shqiperorum, after Shqiperia the Albanian name for Albania, where Nopcsa had a special relation.