Scutellosaurus skoo-teloh-SORRUHS

"little shield"

You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Scutellosaurus 1.3 m (4.3 ft) long
2 people holding hands
Length
1.3 m (4.3 ft)
Period
Early Jurassic (196 Mya)
Place
United Kingdom
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Dinosauria

Scutellosaurus ( ) is a genus of basal thyreophoran dinosaur that lived approximately 196 million years ago during the early part of the Jurassic Period in what is now Arizona, USA. It is classified in Thyreophora, the armoured dinosaurs; its closest relatives may have been Emausaurus and Scelidosaurus, another armored dinosaur which was mainly a quadrupedal dinosaur, unlike bipedal Scutellosaurus. It is one of the earliest representatives of the armored dinosaurs and the basalmost form discovered to date. Scutellosaurus was a small, lightly-built, ground-dwelling herbivore, that could grow up to an estimated 1.3 m long.

What we know

  • Named by Colbert, 1981.
  • Body length estimated at about 1.3 m.
  • Fossils found in United Kingdom.