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DYOPLOSAURUS

a plant-eating ankylosaurine dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Canada.
Pronunciation: dy-OP-low-SOR-us
Meaning: Double-armored lizard
Author/s: W.A. Parks (1924)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Alberta, Canada
Discovery Chart Position: #141

Dyoplosaurus acutosquameus

(Double-armoured lizard, with sharp scales)Etymology
Dyoplosaurus is derived from the Greek "dyo" (two), "hoplon" (weapon, shield) and "sauros" (lizard), for the two rows of armour above its limbs and along its back.
The species epithet, acutosquameus, is derived from the Latin "acutus" (sharp, pointy) and "squama" (scales).
Discovery
The first remains of Dyoplosaurus were discovered at Sternberg Quarry 93 in the Dinosaur Park Formation (Belly River Group), "Happy Jack Ferry" on the Red Deer River, Alberta, Canada, by Levi Sternberg in 1919. The holotype (ROM 784) includes a fragmentary skull, a partial pelvis, a well preserved tail including the club and ossified tendons, and forelimb and hindlimb elements.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Late Cretaceous
Stage: Campanian
Age range: 84-71 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: 4.5 meters
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: 1.5 tons
Diet: Herbivore
References
• Parks WA (1924) "Dyoplosaurus acutosquameus, a new genus and species of armored dinosaur; and notes on a skeleton of Prosaurolophus maximus". University of Toronto Studies Geological Series, 18: 1-35.
• Coombs WP Jr. (1971) "The Ankylosauria". Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, New York.
• Penkalski P (2001) "Variation in specimens referred to Euoplocephalus tutus". Page 363–385 in Carpenter (ed.) "The Armored Dinosaurs".
• Arbour VM Burns ME and Sissons RL (2009) "A redescription of the ankylosaurid dinosaur Dyoplosaurus acutosquameus Parks, 1924 (Ornithischia: Ankylosauria) and a revision of the genus". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 29(4): 1117-1135. DOI: 10.1671/039.029.0405.
• Arbour VM (2009) "Estimating Impact Forces of Tail Club Strikes by Ankylosaurid Dinosaurs". PLoS ONE, 4(8): e6738. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0006738.
• Thompson RS, Parish JC, Maidment SCR and Barrett PM (2011) "Phylogeny of the ankylosaurian dinosaurs (Ornithischia: Thyreophora)". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 10(2): 301-312. DOI: 10.1080/14772019.2011.569091.
• Arbour VM and Currie PJ (2013) "Euoplocephalus tutus and the Diversity of Ankylosaurid Dinosaurs in the Late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada, and Montana, USA". PLoS ONE, 8(5): e62421. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0062421.
• Arbour VM, Currie PJ and Badamgarav D (2014) "The ankylosaurid dinosaurs of the Upper Cretaceous Baruungoyot and Nemegt formations of Mongolia". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 172(3): 631–652. DOI: 10.1111/zoj12185.
• Paul GS (2016) "The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs: Second Edition".
• Penkalski P (2018) "Revised systematics of the armoured dinosaur Euoplocephalus and its allies". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen, 287(3): 261–306. DOI: 10.1127/njgpa/2018/0717.
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L. "DYOPLOSAURUS :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
›. Web access: 06th Mar 2026.
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