Sauropelta edwardsorum SOR-oh-PEL-tah
"Lizard shield"
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Sauropelta 5.2 m (17.1 ft) long
3 people holding hands
- Length
- 5.2 m (17.1 ft) — About 5.2 m long, ~1.5 tonnes — armored but no tail club.
- Period
- Early Cretaceous (115–108 Mya)
- Place
- North America · Wyoming · Montana
- Food
- Herbivore — Low-growing plants, probably ferns and tough cycad fronds.
Sauropelta was a nodosaurid — an ankylosaur cousin that traded the heavy tail club for long shoulder spikes. The shoulders carried two pairs of sideways-pointing spikes that probably warded off attackers from the side. Unlike Ankylosaurus, the tail was flexible and unarmored at the tip.
What we know
- Long sideways-pointing shoulder spikes — the longest of any nodosaur.
- Skin armor across the back, but no tail club.
- Lived alongside Deinonychus in the Cloverly Formation.
- Wide barrel-shaped body for plant fermentation.
What we guess
- Whether the shoulder spikes were primarily defensive or also for display.
- How it survived attacks by Deinonychus — possibly by crouching to expose only its armored back.
- Whether nodosaurids and ankylosaurids descended from a common armored ancestor or evolved armor separately.