Pronunciation: NOHD-o-SOR-us
Meaning: Nobbly (or Node) Lizard
Author/s: O.C. Marsh (1889)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Wyoming, USA
Discovery Chart Position: #68
Nodosaurus textilis
After their discovery in 1881, Othniel Charles Marsh thought that the remains of Nodosaurus belonged to a "new member of the Stegosauria". Well over a century later, we know that it isn't a stegosaur at all, but for a creature that gave its name to a whole family of dinosaurs — Nodosauridae, coined by Marsh in 1890 — there isn't a great deal known about it.
We know that its clan belong in Ankylosauria along with Ankylosaurus and its ankylosaurids, though nodosaurids were lightweights by comparison. With name-prompting bony knobs arranged in bands rather than full armour plates and lacking the thunderous mace-ended tail of most of their fortified cousins, nodosaurids were more like armadillos than armoured tanks. Some nodosaurids had spiked shoulders and sides, but based on current fossil evidence, the stumpy-legged, short-necked, five-toed, Nodosaurus wasn't one of them.
Named by Marsh way back in 1889, Nodosaurus was one of the first armoured dinosaurs to be discovered in North America. Complete skeletons, and, in fact, even the tiniest fragments, have proven a tad elusive in more than a century since then, and at the time of writing, the grand total stands at zero. However, some palaeontologists suspect it might own the terribly eroded, badly weathered and cattle-trampled remains from the same rock formation, currently known as Stegopelta.
We know that its clan belong in Ankylosauria along with Ankylosaurus and its ankylosaurids, though nodosaurids were lightweights by comparison. With name-prompting bony knobs arranged in bands rather than full armour plates and lacking the thunderous mace-ended tail of most of their fortified cousins, nodosaurids were more like armadillos than armoured tanks. Some nodosaurids had spiked shoulders and sides, but based on current fossil evidence, the stumpy-legged, short-necked, five-toed, Nodosaurus wasn't one of them.
Named by Marsh way back in 1889, Nodosaurus was one of the first armoured dinosaurs to be discovered in North America. Complete skeletons, and, in fact, even the tiniest fragments, have proven a tad elusive in more than a century since then, and at the time of writing, the grand total stands at zero. However, some palaeontologists suspect it might own the terribly eroded, badly weathered and cattle-trampled remains from the same rock formation, currently known as Stegopelta.
(Woven knobbed lizard)Etymology
Nodosaurus is derived from the Latin "nodus" (knob, node) and the Greek "sauros" (lizard), named for its armour knobs. The
species epithet, textilis, means "woven" in Latin, referring to said amour knobs that were arranged in bands and "woven" together to protect its back and flanks.
ZooBank registry: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:10004F19-CC9B-4F1E-8D4B-39CD81654A3F.
Discovery
The remains of Nodosaurus were discovered in the Belle Fourche Member of the Frontier Formation at West slope, Como Bluff, Wyoming, USA, by William Harlow Reed on July 17, 1881.
The holotype (YPM 1815, initially catalogued as 1815, 1815a and 1815b) is a partial skeleton, including 3 back vertebrae with attached ribs, and several more ribs (all with overlying armour), a partial pelvis with a sacral armour shield, 13 tail vertebrae, fragmentary forelimbs (pieces of humeri, radius and ulna), a partial left leg (thigh, shin and calf) with an almost complete foot, a partial right thigh and shin, and several osteoderms. Osteoderms, from the Latin "osteo" (bone) in "derm" (skin), are bony deposits in the skin that form scales and armour plates.
