| Stegopelta
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|---|---|
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| Pelvic armor | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | †Ornithischia |
| Clade: | †Thyreophora |
| Clade: | †Ankylosauria |
| Family: | †Nodosauridae |
| Subfamily: | †Nodosaurinae |
| Clade: | †Struthiosaurini |
| Genus: | †Stegopelta Williston, 1905 |
| Species: |
†S. landerensis
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| Binomial name | |
| †Stegopelta landerensis Williston, 1905 | |
Stegopelta (meaning "roofed shield") is a genusofstruthiosaurin 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 FormationofFremont County, Wyoming, USA.
In 1905, Samuel Wendell Williston described FMNH UR88, a partial armored dinosaur skeleton consisting of a maxilla fragment, seven cervical and two dorsal vertebrae, part of a sacrum and both ilia, caudal vertebrae, parts of the scapulae, both humeral heads, portions of an ulna and both radii, a metacarpal, partial tibia, metatarsal, and armor including a shoulder spine and neck ring.[1][2] The specimen was in poor condition, as it had eroded from a slope and been walked on by cattle.[3] Ankylosaurians being very poorly known, Williston compared his new genus to Stegosaurus, and the armor to that of Glyptodon;[1] like that mammal, Stegopelta had a fused section of armor (in its case over the pelvis). Roy Lee Moodie redescribed it in 1910, and considered it to be close to, if not the same as, Ankylosaurus.[3]
The genus fell into obscurity. Walter Coombs synonymized it with the more famous but equally poorly known Nodosaurus in his 1978 redescription of the Ankylosauria.[4] It was reinstated as a valid genus by Ken Carpenter and James Kirkland (1998), who recognized it as having distinct vertebral and armor characteristics.[2] Tracy Ford took this farther in 2000, assigning it to a new subfamilyinAnkylosauridae based on armor characteristics, which he called Stegopeltinae. Also included was Glyptodontopelta.[5] This has not been generally accepted, but most recent reviews have accepted Stegopelta as a distinct genus with uncertain affinities.[6][7]
Because it is so poorly known, at this point all that can be said about the habits and life of Stegopelta is that it was a slow quadrupedal herbivore that fed low to the ground and relied on its armor for defense.[7]
Its armor included a fused region over the sacrum, and shoulder spines that may have been split, as seen in Edmontonia.[2]
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