''Nodosaurus'' (meaning "knobbed lizard") is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

herbivorous A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpart ...

nodosaurid Nodosauridae is a family of ankylosaurian dinosaurs, from the Late Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous period in what is now North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. Description Nodosaurids, like their close relatives the ankylosaurids, wer ...

ankylosaurian Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the order Ornithischia. It includes the great majority of dinosaurs with armor in the form of bony osteoderms, similar to turtles. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds, with short, powerful limbs. ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

from the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the ...

, the fossils of which are found exclusively in the

Frontier Formation The Frontier Formation is a sedimentary geological formation whose strata date back to the Late Cretaceous. The formation's extents are: northwest Colorado, southeast Idaho, southern Montana, northern Utah, and western Wyoming. It occurs in many ...

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

Description

The American journal of science (1921) (18147021802)

''Nodosaurus'' grew up to roughly long and it was an

ornithischian Ornithischia () is an extinct order of mainly herbivorous dinosaurs characterized by a pelvic structure superficially similar to that of birds. The name ''Ornithischia'', or "bird-hipped", reflects this similarity and is derived from the Greek st ...

dinosaur with bony dermal plates covering the top of its body, and it may have had spikes along its side as well. The dermal plates were arranged in bands along its body, with narrow bands over the ribs alternating with wider plates in between. These wider plates were covered in regularly arranged bony nodules, which give the animal its scientific name. In 2010

Paul Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chris ...

estimated its length at 6 meters (20 ft) and its weight at 3.5 tonnes (3.85 short tons). It had four short legs, five-toed feet, a short neck, and a long, stiff, clubless tail. The head was narrow, with a pointed snout, powerful jaws, and small teeth. It perhaps ate soft plants, as it would have been unable to chew tough, fibrous ones; or alternatively it may have processed the latter with

gastrolith A gastrolith, also called a stomach stone or gizzard stone, is a rock held inside a gastrointestinal tract. Gastroliths in some species are retained in the muscular gizzard and used to grind food in animals lacking suitable grinding teeth. In othe ...

s and its enormous intestinal apparatus.

History and classification

During the

Bone Wars The Bone Wars, also known as the Great Dinosaur Rush, was a period of intense and ruthlessly competitive fossil hunting and discovery during the Gilded Age of American history, marked by a heated rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope (of the Acade ...

between palaeontologists

Othniel Charles Marsh Othniel Charles Marsh (October 29, 1831 – March 18, 1899) was an American professor of Paleontology in Yale College and President of the National Academy of Sciences. He was one of the preeminent scientists in the field of paleontology. Among h ...

and

Edward Drinker Cope Edward Drinker Cope (July 28, 1840 – April 12, 1897) was an American zoologist, paleontologist, comparative anatomist, herpetologist, and ichthyologist. Born to a wealthy Quaker family, Cope distinguished himself as a child prodigy interested ...

, Marsh sent his collector

William Harlow Reed William Harlow Reed (9 June 1848 – 24 April 1915) was an American fossil collector and pioneer. He served as a curator at the Museum of Geology at the University of Wyoming, Laramie. He collected for a while for Othniel Charles Marsh but left a ...

to the

Cenomanian The Cenomanian is, in the ICS' geological timescale, the oldest or earliest age of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or the lowest stage of the Upper Cretaceous Series. An age is a unit of geochronology; it is a unit of time; the stage is a unit in the s ...

strata of the

of Albany County, Wyoming to collect fossil mammals and reptiles. Reed collected a partial postcranial skeleton (YPM VP 1815) on July 17, 1881 southeast of the productive Quarry 13, the skeleton including: 3 dorsal and 13 caudal vertebrae, 3 dorsal ribs, fragmentary forelimbs, a partial pelvis, femora, tibiae, partial left pes, and several osteoderms.Raven, T. J. (2021). ''The Taxonomic, Phylogenetic, Biogeographic and Macroevolutionary History of the Armoured Dinosaurs (Ornithischia: Thyreophora)''(Doctoral dissertation, University of Brighton).Coombs, Jr. (1978). "The families of the ornithischian dinosaur order Ankylosauria". Palaeontology. 21 (1): 143–170. One of the first armored dinosaurs to be discovered in North America, ''Nodosaurus textilis'' was named by

in 1889, the generic name meaning "knobbed lizard" and the specific name meaning "woven".Lull, R. S. (1921)
The Cretaceous armored dinosaur, Nodosaurus textilis Marsh.
/ref> Marsh assigned to genus to

Stegosauria Stegosauria is a group of herbivorous ornithischian dinosaurs that lived during the Jurassic and early Cretaceous periods. Stegosaurian fossils have been found mostly in the Northern Hemisphere, predominantly in what is now North America, Europe, ...

, but later assigned it to its own family,

Nodosauridae Nodosauridae is a family of ankylosaurian dinosaurs, from the Late Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous period in what is now North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. Description Nodosaurids, like their close relatives the ankylosaurids, wer ...

, in 1890 based on the heavy dermal armor, solid bones, large forelimbs, and ungulate feet.Marsh, O. C. (1890). Description of new dinosaurian reptiles. ''American Journal of Science'', ''3''(229), 81-86. Chicago The type specimen remains the only definite specimen of ''Nodosaurus'', though ''

Stegopelta ''Stegopelta'' (meaning "roofed shield") is a genus of struthiosaurin nodosaurid dinosaur. It is based on a partial skeleton from the latest Albian- earliest Cenomanian-age Lower and Upper Cretaceous Belle Fourche Member of the Frontier Forma ...

'' has been considered a synonym in the past, it is most likely a distinct Struthiosaurinine. Richard Swan Lull did a more comprehensive description of ''Nodosaurus'' in 1921, who assigned the taxa ''

Hoplitosaurus ''Hoplitosaurus'' (meaning " Hoplite lizard") was a genus of armored dinosaur related to ''Polacanthus''. It was named from a partial skeleton found in the ?Barremian-age Lower Cretaceous Lakota Formation of Custer County, South Dakota. It is ...

Hierosaurus ''Hierosaurus'' (meaning "sacred lizard") is an extinct genus of nodosaurid ankylosaur which lived during the Late Cretaceous 87 to 82 million years ago. Its fossils were found in the Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Formation, in western ...

Ankylosaurus ''Ankylosaurus'' is a genus of armored dinosaur. Its fossils have been found in geological formations dating to the very end of the Cretaceous Period, about 68–66 million years ago, in western North America, making it among the last of the n ...

,'' and placed the British ''

Polacanthus ''Polacanthus'', deriving its name from the Ancient Greek polys-/πολύς- "many" and akantha/ἄκανθα "thorn" or "prickle", is an early armoured, spiked, plant-eating ankylosaurian dinosaur from the early Cretaceous period of England. I ...

'' as a relative of the family''.'' ''Nodosaurus'' was confirmed to belong within

Nodosaurinae Nodosaurinae is a subfamily of nodosaurid ankylosaurs from the Cretaceous of Europe, North America, and South America. The group is defined as the largest clade containing '' Nodosaurus textilis'' but not ''Hylaeosaurus armatus'', '' Mymoorapelta ...

in 2018 and was placed as the sister taxon to ''

Acantholipan ''Acantholipan'' is a genus of herbivorous nodosaurid dinosaur from Mexico from the early Santonian age of the Late Cretaceous. It includes one species, ''Acantholipan gonzalezi.'' Discovery and naming In the north of Mexico, fragmentary fossil ...

''. The

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

phylogenetic analysis of Rivera-Sylva and colleagues is below.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q134209 Nodosaurids Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of North America Fossil taxa described in 1889 Taxa named by Othniel Charles Marsh Paleontology in Wyoming Ornithischian genera

Description

History and classification

See also

References