Bradycneme (meaning "ponderous leg") is a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Maastrichtian-age Upper Cretaceous Sânpetru Formation of the Hațeg Basin, Transylvania, Romania. The genus contains a single species, Bradycneme draculae, known only from a partial right lower leg (specimen BMNH A1588), which its original describers believed came from a giant owl.
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 (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: βραδύς), meaning "slow, ponderous" and (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: κνήμη), meaning "leg", as the holotype, BMNH A1588, a 37.8mm 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 2m (07feet).[1] The specific name, draculae, is derived from Romanian Romanian; Moldavian; Moldovan: dracul, meaning "the dragon," and refers to Dracula.
Starting with Pierce Brodkorb, the specimens were soon compared to small theropod dinosaurs.[2] Bradycneme, Elopteryx and Heptasteornis have been synonymized, split, and reassessed numerous times since then in part because of the fragmentary nature of the remains; there exist three proximal femora and three distal tibiotarsi, which may belong to one, two, or three species.[3] Usually, at least one of them is considered to be a troodontid.
In the most recent assessments, Bradycneme and Heptasteornis were found to be the same and most likely basal members of the Tetanurae in one study,[4] but Darren Naish and Gareth J. Dyke did not follow the synonymy and found Heptasteornis to be an alvarezsaurid, while classifying Bradycneme as an indeterminate maniraptoran.[5] In a 2011 classification, Tom Holtz assigned Bradycneme to the Alvarezsauridae along with Heptasteornis.[6]