Episode 280 is all about Sauropelta, a rhinoceros sized armored dinosaur.

Big thanks to all our patrons! Your support means so much to us and keeps us going! If you’re a dinosaur enthusiast, join our growing community on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/iknowdino.

You can listen to our free podcast, with all our episodes, on Apple Podcasts at: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/i-know-dino/id960976813?mt=2

In this episode, we discuss:

News:

A piece of amber from Myanmar appears to contain a hummingbird-sized dinosaur source Or maybe it’s a lepidosaur (snake/lizard) source Specifically, it might be a gecko ancestor instead of a dinosaur source

A new tracksite on the isle of Skye includes some of the oldest stegosaur tracks source

The Natural History Museum of Denmark has delayed their unveiling of the T. rex Tristan Otto source

Many neighborhoods are putting dinosaurs in their windows so kids can go on scavenger hunts source

Tinkercad is running a create a dinosaur tinker together challenge source

Google Chrome’s T. rex run game has been turned into an exercise tool source

Liverpool One has relaunched their Dinosaurs Unleashed augmented reality app, so you can use the app at home source

The dinosaur of the day: Sauropelta

Nodosaurid that lived in the Early Cretaceous in what is now North America (Wyoming, Montana, maybe Utah)

Medium sized, about 17.1 ft (5.2 m) long

Gregory Paul estimated in 2010 that it was 19.7 ft (6 m) long and weighed 2 tonnes

Tom Holtz estimated it to be 25 ft (7.6 m) long

Had a long tail that was about half the length of its body

One skeleton was found with 40 tail vertebrae, though some were missing, so there were more (maybe 50)

Weighed about 3,300 lb (1,500 kg), about the same as a modern rhinoceros

Heavy because of its armor, and had large spines on its neck

Covered in osteoderms (one skeleton found with osteoderms preserved in situ)

Had two parallel rows of dome scutes that ran down the neck

The back and tail had ossicles and large conical scutes that ran in parallel rows

The hips had ossicles and large domed plates that formed a sacral shield

Had spines on the sides of the neck, that were larger by the shoulders, and then small again along the side of the body (ended at the hips)

Had flat, triangular plates on both sides of the tail that pointed outwards

Had large shoulder spines

Spikes would have made it look larger and been intimating, good for defense that way

Quadrupedal and herbivorous

Probably slow moving

Forelimbs were shorter than hindlimbs

Had a wide body, with a broad pelvis and ribcage

Had large limbs

Had stout feet, limbs, and shoulders

Had short, broad feet

Probably had a “web” of skin between its toes, and toes were spread out, to distribute weight, and probably had padding to cushion its steps

Adapated to be heavy

Had a stiff tail

Had a short neck

Had a stiff neck

Had a triangular skull, that was flat at the top (not domed)

Thick roof of the skull that had flat, bony plates that were very tightly fused (looked smooth), but that could be due to preservation or preparation of the fossils

Had thick, triangular scutes coming out from behind the eyes, below the eyes, and near the cheeks

Had leaf-shaped teeth, used to cut through vegetation

Probably had a keratinous beak

May have been a low browser

Probably ate conifers and cycads

One of the earliest known nodosaurids

Type species: Sauropelta edwardsorum (may be other species, though not named)

Genus name means “lizard shield”

Name refers to its armor

Barnum Brown found the holotype of Sauropelta in the Cloverly Formation in Montana, in the early 1930s, in the Crow Indian Reservation (also found two other skeletons)

One of those skeletons had in situ armor, and is on display at the AMNH

John Ostrom from Yale’s Peabody Museum found more specimens in the Cloverly Formation in Wyoming and Montana in the 1960s, and named Sauropelta in 1970

Ostrom named it Sauropelta edwardsorum, and George Olshevsky changed it to Sauropelta edwardsi to adhere to Latin grammar rules

Sometimes confused with the name Peltosaurus, which Brown used in lectures and museum exhibits, but never officially as a name or description. In 1972 the name Peltosaurus was published with a photo of one of the Sauropelta specimens

Peltosaurus is already the name of a North American lizard

Carpenter and others described material of a large nodosaurid found in Utah, in the Cedar Mountain Formation in 1999, and said it was possibly a new species, but didn’t name it. Later, Carpenter only referred to the specimen as a nodosaurid

Other fossils found, but haven’t been officially described. They include a skull from the Cloverly Formation, and a large fragmentary skeleton from the Cedar Mountain Formation

Possibly Sauropelta footprints have been found in British Columbia in Canada (Charles Sternberg found them in 1932). But don’t know for sure. Known as Tetrapodosaurus borealis, an ichnogenus (originally thought to be ceratopsian, now thought to be nodosaurid, according to Kenneth Carpenter in 1984)

Lived in wide floodplains near rivers that flowed to the shallow inland sea. Lots of river flooding, so it was muddy. After Cloverly, the shallow sea expanded and became the Western Interior Seaway

Other dinosaurs at the same time and place included the ornithopod Tenontosaurus (most common herbivore), the ornithopod Zephyrosaurus, titanosaurs, theropod Deinonychus, oviraptorosaur Microvenator, and the theropod Acrocanthosaurus

Other animals included lungfish, mammals, turtles, crocodilians

One of Mattel’s 2020 Jurassic World Primal Attack toys, called Savage Strike Sauropelta

Fun Fact: There is potential to get some information from the entire mesozoic (all of dinosaur history) using amber.

Sponsors:

Our book 50 Dinosaur Tales is available now! Get the collection of dinosaur stories and facts from recent discoveries by going to bit.ly/50dinosaurtales It’s available as an audibook, ebook, and paperback.