VECTIPELTA
a plant-eating ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of the Isle of Wight.
Pronunciation: VEK-tee-PEL-tuh
Meaning: Isle of Wight shield
Author/s: Pond
et al. (
2023)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Isle of Wight, UK
Discovery Chart Position: #1094
Vectipelta barretti
(Barrett's Isle of Wight Shield)Etymology
Vectipelta is derived from "Vectis" (the Roman name for the Isle of Wight) and the Latin "pelta" (shield).
The
species epithet,
barretti, honours Prof. Paul M. Barrett, in recognition of his major and ongoing contributions to dinosaurian vertebrate palaeontology.
ZooBank registry:
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:0B19B56E-971D-4316-A92C-FC9AB29BBC38.
Discovery
The remains of
Vectipelta were discovered in the Wessex Formation, 50m to the west of Chilton Chine, on the Isle of Wight, UK, by Gavin Leng in November 1993 and Lin Spearpoint in March/April 1994.
The
holotype (IWCMS 1996.153 found by Gavin Leng, and IWCMS 2021.75 found by Lin Spearpoint) is a partial skeleton containing neck, back, hip and tail vertebrae, fragmentary girdle and limb elements, and numerous osteoderms.
Preparators
Lin Spearpoint and Martin I. Simpson.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Early Cretaceous
Stage: Barremian
Age range: 126 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: ?
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: ?
Diet: Herbivore
References
• Pond S, Strachan S-J, Raven TJ, Simpson MI, Morgan K and Maidment SCR (2023)
"
Vectipelta barretti, a new ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Wessex Formation of the Isle of Wight, UK".
Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 21(1): 12210577. DOI: 10.1080/14772019.2023.2210577.
• Lockwood JAF, Martill DM and Maidment SCR (2021) "A new hadrosauriform dinosaur from the Wessex Formation, Wealden Group (Early Cretaceous), of the Isle of Wight, southern England".
Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 19: 847–888. DOI: 10.1080/14772019.2021.1978005.
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
VECTIPELTA :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/VECTIPELTA›. Web access: 07th Mar 2026.
