Dino card No. 2022 of 2,027

Ziapelta

Name means: “Zia shield”1

Ate: PlantsArmoured dinosLate Cretaceous

Ziapelta was an armoured dinosaur that looked like a living tank. It had a big, bony club on its tail and a skull covered in bumpy plates and sharp horns.1 2

Lived

84 to 72 million years ago4

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

New Mexico, USA1 2

Food

Plants4

Length

5.5 m3

estimate, biggest known specimen

Weight

2 tonnes3

estimate, biggest known specimen

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 31 bananas end to endas heavy as 67 big dogsas heavy as 400 watermelons

How big was Ziapelta compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Ziapelta's skull was covered in bony plates called caputegulae, and it had a large, triangular plate on its snout.2

Its squamosal horns were deep and curved forward, measuring about 10.2 centimetres (4 inches) from base to tip.1

The back of Ziapelta's skull had three deep grooves, a feature not seen in other ankylosaurs.2

Ziapelta lived about 74.5 to 72.6 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period.1

Its fossils were found in the Kirtland Formation of New Mexico, in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness.1

The first Ziapelta skull was discovered in 2011 by a team led by Robert Michael Sullivan.1

Ziapelta's name comes from the Zia sun symbol on the New Mexico state flag, plus the Latin word for shield.1

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

?What did Ziapelta eat?

Ziapelta was a plant-eater. Its small teeth and wide beak helped it chew tough plants.1

?How big was Ziapelta?

Nobody knows for sure because only the skull and neck armor have been found. The skull was about 30 centimetres (12 inches) long, so the whole dinosaur was probably around 5 metres (16 feet) long.1 2

?Did Ziapelta have a tail club?

Yes, like most ankylosaurids, Ziapelta probably had a big bony club at the end of its tail, but no tail bones have been found yet.1

?Where was Ziapelta found?

Ziapelta fossils were found in the Kirtland Formation of New Mexico, in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness.1 2

Ask Rex about Ziapelta

Rex only answers questions about this page. 3 questions a day.

Rex is an AI and can make mistakes. He runs on servers in the EU and questions are never saved. Never type your name or other personal things.

For dino experts

Scientific name: Ziapelta
Named by: Arbour et al. 20144
Group: Armoured dinos
Family / clade: Ankylosauridae4
Classification: Ornithischia > Ankylosauria > Ankylosauridae > Thyreophora4
Age of the rocks: 84 to 72 million years (Campanian)4
Rock formations: Kirtland4
Countries: USA4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Ziapelta was named in 2014 by Victoria Arbour and colleagues, based on a complete skull and neck armour found in New Mexico.1 4
Still debated: Scientists are not sure whether Ziapelta was more closely related to Scolosaurus or to Nodocephalosaurus.1

Where the facts come from

Ziapelta (en.wikipedia.org)
A New Ankylosaurid Dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous (Kirtlandian) of New Mexico with Implications for Ankylosaurid Diversity in the Upper Cretaceous of Western North America (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
Ziapelta sanjuanensis | Dinosaur Database by DinoAnimals.com (dinoanimals.com)
Ziapelta 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.

Rex is hungry! Dino Wiki is a dad's project for his dino-loving son, free with no ads. Grown-ups can feed Rex a snack to help keep it online.Feed Rex