Sauroplites

Sauroplites had a special shield on its hips made of fused rosettes. Each rosette had one large central bony plate surrounded by a single ring of smaller plates. No other armoured dinosaur had this exact pattern.12

The largest bony plates on its back could be up to 40 centimetres (about 16 inches) long. The plates on its sides were about 30 centimetres (12 inches) across.1

The fossils of Sauroplites were discovered in 1930 by Swedish paleontologist Anders Birger Bohlin during an expedition in Inner Mongolia. The dinosaur was named and described by Bohlin in 1953.1

The original fossil bones of Sauroplites are lost today, but some casts (copies) are kept at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.1

For a long time, scientists thought Sauroplites might be a doubtful name because the fossils were so fragmentary. But in 2014, researcher Victoria Megan Arbour found a unique feature on the hip shield that proved it was a real, valid dinosaur.1

Sauroplites lived about 121 to 113 million years ago, during the Aptian stage of the Early Cretaceous. Its fossils were found in rocks of the Zhidan Group.12