Sauropelta
SAWR-oh-PEL-tah
Sauropelta is a genus of herbivorous dinosaur native to North America, and is easily recognized thanks to the large spikes that extend from its neck. Due to its large size – weighing around 1.5 tons – Sauropelta cannot run at high speeds, so it relies on being able to defend itself from predators; as well as defensive spikes that can be used to repel attackers, it has thick armor covering most of its body – lending the genus its name, which translates to ‘lizard shield’.
Discovery
The first Sauropelta fossils were found by Barnum Brown, an American paleontologist known as ‘Mr. Bones’, in 1930. Brown excavated a partial skeleton from the Cloverly Formation in Montana. However, it wasn’t until 1970 that the remains were officially classified as a new genus by fellow paleontologist John Ostrom, after he excavated related fossils from the same location.
Palaeoecology
Sauropelta existed during the Early Cretaceous period around 95-120m years ago, roaming the wide floodplains of the western United States in search of ground-level vegetation. It lived alongside a wide variety of dinosaurs, including the predator Deinonychus.
Information
- Era
- Early Cretaceous
- Family
- Nodosauridae
- Genus
- Sauropelta
- Height
- 2.1M
- Length
- 8M
- Weight
- 1.5T
- Diet
- Ground Paleobotany
- Egg batch size
- 1 - 3
