Scutellosaurus
From Latin 'scutellum' (diminutive of 'scutum', shield; small shield) + Greek 'sauros' (lizard), meaning 'little shield lizard', referring to the small scutes covering its body.
Scutellosaurus is a genus of basal thyreophoran dinosaur that lived approximately 196 million years ago during the early part of the Jurassic Period in what is now Arizona, USA. It is classified in Thyreophora, the armored dinosaurs; its closest relatives may have been Emausaurus and Scelidosaurus, another armored dinosaur which was mainly a quadrupedal dinosaur, unlike bipedal Scutellosaurus. It is one of the earliest representatives of the armored dinosaurs and the basalmost form discovered to date. Scutellosaurus was a small, lightly-built, ground-dwelling herbivore, that could grow up to an estimated 1.3 meters (4.3 ft) long.
Species
Scutellosaurus lawleri Colbert, 1981
Type species
Named for David Lawler, who discovered and collected the holotype fossil in Coconino County, Arizona.
- Holotype
- MNA.V.175 , Museum of Northern Arizona
- Horizon
- Kayenta Formation, Sinemurian–Pliensbachian, Early Jurassic , 199.5–184.2 million years ago
- Locality
- Arizona, United States
References
- Colbert, E. H. (1981). A primitive ornithischian dinosaur from the Kayenta Formation of Arizona. Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin 53: 1-61. colbert1981a
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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