Dino card No. 0642 of 2,027

Europelta

Say it: yoo-roh-PEL-tah

Name means: “Europe's shield”1

Ate: PlantsArmoured dinosEarly Cretaceous

Europelta was a slow-moving, plant-eating dinosaur covered in bony armor like a tank. It lived in what is now Spain during the Early Cretaceous period, about 113 million years ago.1

Lived

113 to 110 million years ago4

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Santa María coal mine near Ariño, Teruel Province, Spain2 4

Food

Plants4

Length

5 m1

Weight

1.3 tonnes1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

as long as 3 bicycles in a rowas long as 28 bananas end to endas heavy as 43 big dogsas heavy as 260 watermelons

How big was Europelta compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

cool stuff

Fun facts

Europelta is the most complete ankylosaur ever found in Europe.1

Two partial skeletons were found together in a coal mine, showing these dinosaurs may have lived in groups.2

It was a nodosaurid, a type of armored dinosaur with spikes on its shoulders and a club-less tail.1

Europelta was the largest member of its group, Struthiosaurini, weighing about as much as a small car.1

Its fossils were found in rocks that were once a freshwater swamp, full of plant debris and coal.2

AI-made picture of Europelta — An AI-made picture of how Europelta 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 Europelta

?How big was Europelta?

Europelta was about 5 metres (16 feet) long and weighed around 1.3 tonnes (2,866 lbs), about as much as a small car.1

?Did Europelta have a tail club?

No, Europelta was a nodosaurid, a type of armored dinosaur that did not have a tail club.3

?What did Europelta eat?

Europelta was a plant-eater that ate low-lying plants in its swampy habitat.3

?Where was Europelta found?

Europelta was found in a coal mine in Ariño, Teruel Province, Spain, in rocks that were once a freshwater swamp.1 3

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Europelta
Named by: Kirkland et al. 20134
Group: Armoured dinos
Family / clade: Nodosauridae4
Classification: Ornithischia > Ankylosauria > Nodosauridae > Thyreophora4
Age of the rocks: 113 to 110 million years (Albian)4
Rock formations: Escucha4
Countries: Spain4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Europelta was named in 2013 by James Kirkland and his team. The two skeletons were dug up from the Santa María coal mine in Spain.1 4
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how Europelta is related to other armored dinosaurs from Europe and North America.2

Where the facts come from

Europelta (en.wikipedia.org)
The Basal Nodosaurid Ankylosaur Europelta carbonensis n. gen., n. sp. from the Lower Cretaceous (Lower Albian) Escucha Formation of Northeastern Spain (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Europe’s Shield, From the Coal | National Geographic (nationalgeographic.com)
Europelta 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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