Open Paleo

Platypelta

Penkalski, 2018 PLAT-ee-PEL-tuh

From Greek platys (πλατύς, 'flat' or 'broad') and Latin pelta ('small shield'), meaning 'flat shield', referring to the broad, flat armor of this ankylosaurid

83.6–72.2 million years ago Campanian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Platypelta is an extinct genus of herbivorous ankylosaurid dinosaurs within the subfamily Ankylosaurinae. It is known from the Late Cretaceous Dinosaur Park Formation (early Late Campanian stage, about 77.5-76.5 Ma ago) of southern Alberta, Canada. The type species is Platypelta coombsi.

Diagnosis

  1. Large (>25 cm), rugose, sharply keeled, plate-like osteoderms with pointed beak-like ends
  2. Snout constricted rostral to orbits
  3. Vomer overlaps fused premaxillae caudally
  4. Occipital condyle large
  5. Squamosal horns low, rugose, broad-based with pitted caudal apex
  6. Tooth crowns highly sculptured
  7. Robust pes with arcuate pedal unguals
  8. h.r.1 medial osteoderms elongate, partially keeled with conical prominence

Species

Platypelta coombsi Penkalski, 2018

Type species

Named for Walter P. Coombs Jr., who pioneered the study of ankylosaurs in the late twentieth century.

Holotype
AMNH 5337 , American Museum of Natural History
Material
Well-preserved skull, mandibles, teeth, cervical and dorsal vertebrae, ribs, complete pelvis, scapulocoracoids, humeri, radii, cervical half-rings, six free osteoderms
Horizon
lower Dinosaur Park Formation, Campanian, Late Cretaceous , 83.6–72.2 million years ago
Locality
Sand Creek, Alberta, Canada

Notable specimens

  • ROM 813

    Royal Ontario Museum complementary

    Referred skeleton lacking the skull but preserving the entire rump, forelimbs, and hindlimbs plus skin impressions and numerous osteoderms, anatomy absent in the holotype, which lacks the tail and hindlimbs. Kept on three blocks left unprepared to conserve the impressions.

    Penkalski (2018)

References

  1. Penkalski, P. (2018). Revised systematics of the armoured dinosaur Euoplocephalus and its allies. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen 287(3): 261-306. Schweizerbart. doi:10.1127/njgpa/2018/0717 penkalski2018a
  2. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Ornithischians. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the body length, mass, and hip height estimates.

    jones2026a