Dinosaurs A to Z
Nodosauridae

Anoplosaurus

"unarmored or unarmed lizard"

Generic ankylosaur body-plan outline
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Anoplosaurus 5 m (16.4 ft) long
as long as 3 people standing fingertip to fingertip
generic ankylosaur body plan, scaled to length — not a silhouette of Anoplosaurus
Length
5 m (16.4 ft)
Period
Early Cretaceous (100 Mya)
Place
United Kingdom
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Nodosauridae Dinosauria Ornithischia Thyreophora Ankylosauria Ankylosaurs without the tail club.

Anoplosaurus (meaning “unarmored or unarmed lizard”) is an extinct genus of herbivorous nodosaurid dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous (late Albian age) Cambridge Greensand of Cambridgeshire, England. It has in the past been classified with either the armored dinosaurs or the ornithopods, but current thought has been in agreement with the “armored dinosaur” interpretation, placing it in the Ankylosauria.

What we know

  • Named by Seeley, 1879.
  • Fossils found in United Kingdom.

What we guess

The reconstruction notes for Anoplosaurus — soft tissue, color, behavior — haven't been written up yet. Only the recorded basics above are filled in so far.