Dracopelta
From Latin draco (dragon) + Greek pelte (shield): 'dragon shield'.
Dracopelta is a monospecific genus of ankylosaurian dinosaur that lived during the Late Jurassic (uppermost lower Tithonian-upper Tithonian, 152.1-145.0 Ma) in what is now the Lourinhã Formation, Portugal. The type and only species is Dracopelta zbyszewskii, which is represented by a partial skeleton including unpublished material.
Diagnosis
- Dermal armor includes very small isolated flat scutes with irregularly sculptured dorsal surface.
- Small medial paired subcircular plates with raised centers and thickened rims separated by a depression.
- Very long elongate anterolateral (non-overlapping) plates, the larger measuring up to 190 mm by 75 mm.
- Narrow non-projecting dorsolateral plates that overlap each other posteriorly and dorsally.
- Wide laterally projecting plates that overlap the plate behind, with thin lateral margins and a longitudinal ridge near the medial edge on at least one plate.
Species
Dracopelta zbyszewskii Galton, 1980
Type species
Named for Georges Zbyszewski, in honor of research on fossil vertebrates from Portugal.
- Holotype
- MG 3, MG 5787 , Museu Geológico do Instituto Geológico e Mineiro
- Material
- Partial rib cage with twelve dorsal vertebrae and articulated proximal ribs, five different types of dermal armor, and an incomplete autopodium with three metapodials and digits II, III and IV.
- Notes
- Galton (1980) described the rib cage and armor, now MG 5787, and printed no number. Russo and Mateus (2021) treat the autopodium, MG 3, as part of the same individual, the museum having numbered material by cabinet rather than by skeleton, and recommend "the lowest number (MG 3) for the entire holotype specimen".
- Horizon
- Assenta Member, Lourinhã Formation, Tithonian, Late Jurassic , 149.2–143.1 million years ago
- Locality
- Praia da Assenta Sul, Lisbon, Portugal
References
- Galton, P. M. (1980). Partial skeleton of Dracopelta zbyszewskii N. Gen. And N. SP., an ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic of Portugal. Geobios 13(3): 451-457. Elsevier BV. doi:10.1016/s0016-6995(80)80081-7 galton1980b
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Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Ornithischians. Princeton University Press.
Source of the hip height estimate, and the appearance features.
jones2026a -
Russo, J.; Mateus, O. (2021). History of the discovery of the ankylosaur Dracopelta zbyszewskii (Upper Jurassic), with new data about the type specimen and its locality. Comunicações Geológicas 108(1): 27-34.
Field revisit that fixes the type locality at Praia da Assenta Sul and prints its coordinates. Assigns MG 5787 and MG 3 to one individual and recommends a single number, MG 3, for the holotype.
russo2021a