a herbivorous ankylosaurian (armour-plated) dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Antarctica.
Pronunciation: ant-ARK-toe-PELL-tuh
Meaning: Antarctic shield
Author/s: Salgado and Gasparini (
2006)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: James Ross Island, Antarctica
Discovery Chart Position: #583
Antarctopelta oliveroi
Located in 1986, excavated over the following ten years, and discussed in three separate publications since then,
Antarctopelta was only officially named by Salgado and Gasparini in 2006.
This heel-dragging meant it was robbed of the "first named dinosaur from Antarctica" title when Hammer and Hickerson's crested
Cryolophosaurus, which—despite being discovered five years later—was formally described by 1994. However,
Antarctopelta is the first Antarctic ornithischian, the first named plant eater from the continent, and only the second ankylosaur known from the Southern Hemisphere.
(Olivero's Antarctic Shield)Etymology
Antarctopelta is derived from "Antarctica" (its place of discovery) and the Greek "pelte" (shield), referring to its armour. The
species epithet,
oliveroi, honours Argentine geologist and paleontologist Eduardo Olivero who co-discovered the holotype.
Discovery
The first and only known specimen of
Antarctopelta was discovered in the Gamma Member of the Snow Hill Island Formation (Marambio Group) at Santa Marta Cove, James Ross Island, Antarctica, in 1986 by Eduardo Olivero and Roberto Scasso, but took a full decade to excavate. Frozen ground, you see? Additional material assumed to
belong to the same specimen was recovered during subsequent fieldwork. The
Holotype (MLP 86-X-28-1) includes part of the lower jaw with a single tooth attached, three isolated teeth, skull fragments, vertebrae from the neck, back, hip and tail (plus a latex cast from an impression of three neck vertebrae), a partial thigh, rib fragments, a partial hip bone, a piece of left shoulder blade, some foot bones, and six different types of armour.
Preparators
J. Moly and O. Molina of Museo de La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
• Gasparini Z, Olivero E, Scasso R and Rinaldi C (1987) "Un ankilosaurio (Reptilia, Ornithischia)
Campaniano en el continente antártico".
Anais do X Congresso Brasileiro de Paleontologia: 131-141.
• Olivero E, Gasparini Z, Rinaldi C and Scasso R (1991) "First record of dinosaurs in Antarctica (Upper Cretaceous, James Ross Island): paleogeographical implications". Page 617-622 in Thomson, Crame and Thomson (eds.) "
Geological Evolution of Antarctica".
• Hammer WR and Hickerson WJ (1994) "A Crested Theropod Dinosaur from Antarctica".
Science, 264(5160): 828–830. DOI: 10.1126/science.264.5160.828. [Cryolophosaurus ellioti.]
• Gasparini Z, Pereda-Suberbiola X and Molnar RE (1996) "New data on the ankylosaurian dinosaur
from the Late Cretaceous of the Antarctica Peninsula".
Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 39: 583-594.
• Ricqlès A De, Pereda-Suberbiola X, Gasparini Z and Olivero E (2001) "Histology of dermal ossifications in an ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Antarctica".
VII International Symposium on Mesozoic Terrestrial Ecosystems, Asociación Paleontológica Argentina, 7: 171-174.
• Vickaryous MK, Maryanska T and Weishampel DB (2004) "Ankylosauria". Page 363-392 in Weishampel, Dodson and Osmólska (eds.) "
The Dinosauria: Second Edition".
• Salgado L and Gasparini Z (2006) "
Reappraisal of an ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of James Ross Island (Antarctica)".
Geodiversitas, 28(1): 119-135.
• Soto-Acuña, S., Vargas, A.O., Kaluza, J. et al. (2021) "Bizarre tail weaponry in a transitional ankylosaur from subantarctic Chile".
Nature, 600: 259–263. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04147-1.
• Sanchez S, de Ricqlès A, Ponstein J, Tafforeau P and Zylberberg L (2024) "
Microstructure and development of the dermal ossicles of Antarctopelta oliveroi (Dinosauria, Ankylosauria): A complex morphogenetic system deciphered through three-dimensional X-ray microtomography".
Journal of Anatomy, 247(3-4): 665-681. "From Fossil to Microscope: Unraveling the Tapestry of Tissue Anatomy through Paleohistology". DOI: 10.1111/joa.14159.
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
ANTARCTOPELTA :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/ANTARCTOPELTA›. Web access: 07th Mar 2026.
