Somehow you can’t get over the idea that Transylvanian Dinosaurs wear capes, live in decaying mansions, and invite you to enter freely and of your own will. Barney with fangs. However, the authors refrain from the slightest mention of that sort of thing; instead, this is an excellent book covering a variety of topics: an account of field work in the Cretaceous Hațeg Basin; the history of vertebrate paleontology in Romania (more or less started by Franz Baron Nopsca; as a young student he complained that the University of Vienna offered no courses in paleontology, to which his adviser replied “Then learn it”, and he proceeded to do so); description of the Hațeg fauna (relatively sparse, like most European vertebrate fossils, but interesting); an introduction to cladistic taxonomy, which is really well done; paleogeography of the area (the Hațeg fossils appear to come from a moderate size island, perhaps as big as modern Sri Lanka, in the Neotethys Ocean); as discussion of heterochrony (some of the Hațeg fauna appear to be “dwarf” versions of mainland types; this is often the case in island fauna, and the authors speculate – and provide some mathematical evidence – that it’s the result of paedomorphosis); and speculation that hadrosaurs first appeared in Europe. An interesting example of what call be gleaned from a relatively small number of fossils; well written, easy to read despite a technical topic, extensively illustrated, and well referenced. ( )