Scelidosaurus
Scelidosaurus was an early armoured dinosaur that walked on four legs and ate plants. It lived in what is now England during the Early Jurassic, about 191 million years ago. Its body was covered with rows of bony plates that protected it from predators.12
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as long as 4 dogs nose to tail🍌as long as 22 bananas end to end🍉as heavy as 54 watermelons🧸as heavy as 14 kindergarten kids🎒as heavy as 8 school kids🏃could run 100 metres in 16 seconds (the fastest human needs 9.6)How big was Scelidosaurus compared to YOU?
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Fun facts
Scelidosaurus was one of the first complete dinosaurs ever found, and it is one of the most completely known dinosaurs from the British Isles.1
Its name was meant to mean 'hindlimb lizard', but the scientist who named it mixed up two Greek words, so it actually means 'rib of beef lizard'.1
Scelidosaurus had long horizontal rows of keeled oval bony plates (osteoderms) along its neck, back and tail for protection.1
It lived during the Early Jurassic, when Europe was a group of islands.1
The first fossils were found in the 1850s by quarry owner James Harrison near Charmouth, England.1
Scelidosaurus had a small head and a large gut to digest tough plants.1
Most asked questions about Scelidosaurus
?What did Scelidosaurus eat?
It was a herbivore that ate low scrubby plants, biting them off with its small head and digesting them in its large gut.12
?Where was Scelidosaurus found?
Its fossils have been found in the Charmouth Mudstone Formation near Charmouth in Dorset, England.1
?Did Scelidosaurus have armor?
Yes, it was covered in rows of bony plates called osteoderms along its neck, back, and tail for protection.14
?Could Scelidosaurus walk on two legs?
It mostly walked on all fours, but it may have been able to rear up on its hind legs to reach food, and a trackway suggests it could walk on two legs sometimes.1
?Is Scelidosaurus a dinosaur?
Yes, it is a herbivorous armoured ornithischian dinosaur from the Jurassic.12
?Who named Scelidosaurus?
The famous scientist Richard Owen named it in 1859.1
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For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Scelidosaurus
- Named by
- Owen 18595
- Group
- Armoured dinos
- Family / clade
- Scelidosauridae5
- Classification
- Ornithischia > Thyreophora5
- Age of the rocks
- 206 to 175 million years (Rhaetian / Toarcian)5
- Rock formations
- Charmouth Mudstone, Waterloo Mudstone5
- Countries
- United Kingdom, China5
- Fossil records
- 13 in the Paleobiology Database5
- Discovery
- Scelidosaurus was named and described by the famous scientist Richard Owen in 1859, based on fossils sent to him by James Harrison and Henry Norris from Charmouth, England. The type species Scelidosaurus harrisonii was named in 1861 in honor of Harrison.12
- Still debated
- Scientists still debate whether Scelidosaurus is more closely related to stegosaurs or ankylosaurs, or if it is a very early member of the armoured dinosaur group.13
Where the facts come from
- Scelidosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
- Scelidosaurus | Natural History Museum (nhm.ac.uk)
- PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
- Scelidosaurus harrisonii from the Early Jurassic of Dorset, England: the dermal skeleton | Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society | Oxford Academic (academic.oup.com)
- Scelidosaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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