Pronunciation: STEG-o-PEL-tuh
Meaning: Roofed/covered shield
Author/s: Williston (1905)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Wyoming, U.S.A
Discovery Chart Position: #91
Stegopelta landerensis
As if it isn't tough enough to squeeze juicy info from dry-as-oats multi-million-year-old dinosaur bones, Stegopelta's terribly eroded, badly weathered, and generally pants skeleton was trampled under-hoof by inconsiderate grazing cattle for God knows how long. By the time palaeontologists got around to removing what was left, what was left was not a lot, but there was enough to spark plenty of interest amongst the science fraternity.
Discovered by Samuel Wendell Williston in 1905, Stegopelta was described as resembling something between Stegosaurus and the car-sized armadillo-like mammal Glyptodon, and in 1910 Roy Lee Moodie considered it to be close to, if not the same as, Ankylosaurus. After almost seven decades of obscurity, it rose from the ashes, only to be synonymised with the more famous but equally poorly-understood Nodosaurus textilis in 1978 by Walter Coombs. But Ken Carpenter and Jim Kirkland reinstated it as a stand-alone genus in 1998. Based on armour characteristics, Tracy Ford assigned it to Stegopeltinae — a new family of Ankylosaurids — along with Glyptodontopelta in 2000, which went down like a lead balloon. After weighing up the pros and cons, some experts suspect Coombs may have been right all along, others that Stegopelta is a distinct genus with uncertain affinities, and others still that it may be related to Texasetes.
Like all nodosaurids, Stegopelta was a slow-moving quadruped. It was armour-plated but not as heavily fortified as the ankylosaurids, and had shoulder spikes and hexagonal osteoderms that formed a plate over the pelvis.
Discovered by Samuel Wendell Williston in 1905, Stegopelta was described as resembling something between Stegosaurus and the car-sized armadillo-like mammal Glyptodon, and in 1910 Roy Lee Moodie considered it to be close to, if not the same as, Ankylosaurus. After almost seven decades of obscurity, it rose from the ashes, only to be synonymised with the more famous but equally poorly-understood Nodosaurus textilis in 1978 by Walter Coombs. But Ken Carpenter and Jim Kirkland reinstated it as a stand-alone genus in 1998. Based on armour characteristics, Tracy Ford assigned it to Stegopeltinae — a new family of Ankylosaurids — along with Glyptodontopelta in 2000, which went down like a lead balloon. After weighing up the pros and cons, some experts suspect Coombs may have been right all along, others that Stegopelta is a distinct genus with uncertain affinities, and others still that it may be related to Texasetes.
Like all nodosaurids, Stegopelta was a slow-moving quadruped. It was armour-plated but not as heavily fortified as the ankylosaurids, and had shoulder spikes and hexagonal osteoderms that formed a plate over the pelvis.
Etymology
Stegopelta is derived from the Greek "stego" (cover or roof) and "pelte" (shield) because of its armour covering.
The species epithet, landerensis, means "from Lander" in Latin, honouring the town of Lander in Fremont county.
Discovery
The remains of Stegopelta were discovered near Conant Creek in the Belle Fourche Member of the Frontier Formation, Lander, Fremont County, Wyoming, USA, by Samuel Wendell Williston in 1905.
The holotype (FMNH UR88) includes a fragment of the upper jaw, seven cervical (neck) vertebrae, two dorsal (back) vertebrae, incomplete sacrum (hip vertebrae), two partial caudal (tail) vertebrae, parts of both ilia (hip bones), parts of both scapulae (shoulder blades), partial arm, leg, hand and foot bones, and armour from its neck yoke, chest and pelvis.
