Hoplitosaurus Hoplitosaurus

"Hoplite lizard"

You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Hoplitosaurus 5 m (16.4 ft) long
3 people holding hands
Length
5 m (16.4 ft)
Period
Early Cretaceous (130 Mya)
Place
South Dakota, USA
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Nodosauridae Dinosauria Ornithischia Thyreophora Ankylosauria

Hoplitosaurus (meaning “Hoplite lizard”) was a genus of armored dinosaur related to Polacanthus. It was named from a partial skeleton found in the Barremian (Early Cretaceous) Lakota Formation of Custer County, South Dakota. It is an obscure genus which has been subject to some misinterpretation of its damaged remains. Although there was a push to synonymize it with Polacanthus in the late 1980s-early 1990s, Hoplitosaurus has been accepted as a valid albeit poorly known genus in more recent reviews.

What we know

  • Named by Lucas, 1902.
  • Fossils found in South Dakota, USA.