Pronunciation: nih-PON-o-PELL-tuh
Meaning: Japanese shield
Author/s: Oyabu et al. (2026)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Hokkaido, Japan
Acta Ordinal: #1239
Nipponopelta yezoensis
(Japanese shield from Yezo)Etymology
Nipponopelta is derived from "nippon" (a pronunciation of the Kanji characters that mean "Japan") and the Greek "pelta" (shield). The species epithet, yezoensis, combines the Japanese term "yezo" (aka "ezo", historically referring to the lands and the peoples to the north of the Island of Honshu, including what has been known as "Hokkaido" since its name was changed in 1869) with the Latin "ensis" (from).
Discovery
The remains of Nipponopelta were discovered in a concretion from the Hikagenosawa Formation (Yezo Group), in the Omakizawa River—a tributary of the Shuparo River, Yubari City, Hokkaido, Japan, on 25 June 1995 by Mikasa City resident Mr. Eijiro Goto, who donated the specimen to the Mikasa City Museum.
The holotype (MCM A522) is a partial skull, the first neck vertebra (atlas), and twelve teeth. Despite the Yezo Group consisting mainly of marine deposits, it has produced several other dinosaurs, including the hadrosaurid Kamuysaurus japonicus (Kobayashi et al., 2019) and the therizinosaurid Paralitherizinosaurus japonicus (Kobayashi et al., 2022).
Preparator
The late Dr. Hiroshi Hayakawa of the Mikasa City Museum.
