Dino card No. 0070 of 2,027

Aletopelta

Say it: al-eh-toe-PEL-ta

Name means: “wanderer shield”1

Ate: PlantsArmoured dinosLate Cretaceous

Aletopelta was an armoured dinosaur that lived near the coast of California about 75 million years ago. It was covered in bony plates and had a big shield of bone over its hips. After it died, its body floated out to sea and became a tiny reef on the ocean floor!1

Lived

84 to 72 million years ago5

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Carlsbad, California, USA1 5

Food

Plants1 2

Length

5 to 6 m1

scientists give different estimates

Weight

2 tonnes1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 1.5 cars

as long as 6 dogs nose to tailas long as 33 bananas end to endas heavy as 67 big dogsas heavy as 400 watermelons

How big was Aletopelta compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Aletopelta's body was carried out to sea by a stream, and it sank upside down, becoming a mini reef where oysters and other sea creatures attached to its bones.1

Sharks like Squalicorax and Scapanorhynchus scavenged the dead dinosaur, leaving hollow bones and shallow pits in its armour plates.1

The name Aletopelta means 'wanderer shield' because the tectonic plate carrying its fossils drifted north from near Mexico to California over millions of years.1

Aletopelta had a pelvic shield made of many six-sided bony plates that were fused together.1

The only known skeleton of Aletopelta might be from a young animal, because some of its bones were not fully fused.1

AI-made picture of Aletopelta — An AI-made picture of how Aletopelta might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

you asked

Most asked questions about Aletopelta

?How big was Aletopelta?

About 5 metres (16 feet) long and weighed about 2 tonnes (4,409 lbs). Some scientists have estimated it at 6 metres (19.7 feet) long.1

?What did Aletopelta eat?

It was a plant-eater. It foraged for plants along the edges of rivers and estuaries.3

?Did Aletopelta have a tail club?

Scientists are not sure. The tail was not found, but some experts think it was an ankylosaurid and may have had a bony tail club.3 4

?Where was Aletopelta found?

It was found in Carlsbad, California, near College Boulevard, during a road construction project in 1987.1 3

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Aletopelta
Named by: Ford and Kirkland 20015
Group: Armoured dinos
Family / clade: Ankylosauridae5
Classification: Ornithischia > Ankylosauria > Ankylosauridae > Thyreophora5
Age of the rocks: 84 to 72 million years (Campanian)5
Rock formations: Point Loma5
Countries: USA5
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database5
Discovery: In 1987, construction workers digging a sewage pipe near Carlsbad, California, uncovered the skeleton. It was first described in 1996 by Thomas Deméré and Walter Coombs, and officially named Aletopelta coombsi in 2001 by Tracy Ford and James Kirkland.1
Still debated: Scientists still debate whether Aletopelta was an ankylosaurid or a nodosaurid, and some have even called it a nomen dubium (doubtful name) because its fossils are incomplete.1 2

Where the facts come from

Aletopelta (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
The Nat | Ankylosaur (sdnhm.org)
Ankylosaur Reef (smithsonianmag.com)
Aletopelta in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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