Aletopelta coombsi Ford & Kirkland, 2001
Dinosauria
Ornithischia
Ankylosauria
Ankylosauridae
Late Cretaceous
Point Loma Fm (Upper Campanian)
California, US
Length: 5 m
Only a few dinosaur remains have been uncovered from the Golden State, and Aletopelta ("Wandering small shield") is one of them. It is known from leg bones, ribs and osteoderms, indicating it was an ankylosaur (a group of heavily armored herbivorous dinosaurs that flourished during the Cretaceous period). The remains of a single individual that was scavenged by sharks were found during road construction near Carlsbad in Southern California in 1987 and were long known as the "Carlsbad ankylosaur" before receiving a scientific name in 2001.
References:
Coombs, W. P., & Deméré, T. A. (1996). A Late Cretaceous nodosaurid ankylosaur (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from marine sediments of coastal California. Journal of Paleontology, 70(02), 311-326.
Ford T.L. & Kirkland, J.I. (2001). Carlsbad ankylosaur (Ornithischia, Ankylosauria): an ankylosaurid and not a nodosaurid, In: The Armored Dinosaurs. Indiana University Press, Bloomington pp 239-260.
June 11, 2017
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