Hylaeosaurus heye-liːoʊ-SƆːRUHS

Generic ankylosaur body-plan outline
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Hylaeosaurus 7.6 m (24.9 ft) long
as long as 5 people standing fingertip to fingertip
generic ankylosaur body plan, scaled to length — not a silhouette of Hylaeosaurus
Length
7.6 m (24.9 ft)
Period
Cretaceous (145–66 Mya)
Place
United Kingdom
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Nodosauridae Dinosauria Ornithischia Thyreophora Ankylosauria Ankylosaurs without the tail club.

Hylaeosaurus ( ) is a herbivorous ankylosaurian dinosaur that lived about 136 million years ago, in the late Valanginian stage of the early Cretaceous period of England. It was found in the Grinstead Clay.

Hylaeosaurus was one of the first dinosaurs to be discovered, in 1832 by Gideon Mantell. In 1842 it was one of the three dinosaurs Richard Owen based the Dinosauria on, the others being Iguanodon and Megalosaurus. Four species were named in the genus, but only the type species Hylaeosaurus armatus is today considered valid. Only limited remains have been found of Hylaeosaurus and much of its anatomy is unknown. It might have been a basal nodosaurid, although a recent cladistic analysis recovers it as a basal ankylosaurid.

What we know

  • Named by Mantell, 1833.
  • Body length estimated at about 7.6 m.
  • Fossils found in United Kingdom.

What we guess

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