Dongyangopelta
Name:
Dongyangopelta
(Dongyang Shield).
Phonetic: Dong-yang-o-pel-tah.
Named By: Rongjun Chen, Wenjie Zheng, Yoichi
Azuma, Masateru Shibata, Tianliang Lou, Qiang Jin &
Xingsheng Jin - 2013.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Thyreophora, Nodosauridae.
Species: D. yangyanensis
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Unavailable.
Known locations: China, Zheijiang Province -
Chaochuan Formation.
Time period: Albian/Cenomanian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial remains.
Dongyangopelta
is a genus of nodosaurid
dinosaur that lived in South-east China around
the early/late Cretaceous boundary. Nodosaurids were similar to
ankylosaurids, though they lacked the clubbed tail and usually had
narrower skulls. Another genus of nodosaurid dinosaur named
Zhejiangosaurus
is also known from this part of China, though
there are clear differences in the fossils of the hind quarters
between these two nodosaurid genera.
Dongyangopelta
translates as ‘Dongyang shield’, a combined reference to the City
of Dongyang near where the holotype fossils of Dongyangopelta
were
found, as well as the armoured nature of the skin of Dongyangopelta
which would have been covered in bony osteoderm armour.
Dongyangopelta should not be confused with the
similarly named
Dongyangosaurus.
Further reading
- A New Nodosaurid Ankylosaur from the Chaochuan Formation of
Dongyang, Zhejiang Province, China. - Acta Geologica Sinica
(English Edition) 87 (3): 658–671. - Rongjun Chen,
Wenjie Zheng, Yoichi Azuma, Masateru Shibata, Tianliang Lou,
Qiang Jin & Xingsheng Jin - 2013.
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