Scutellosaurus, “the little shield lizard”, was a small 4.4 foot long armored dinosaur which lived in Arizona during the early Jurassic Period approximately 185 million years ago.

At present, Scutellosaurus is the most common dinosaur known from the Kayenta Formation. Since its discovery in 1971, over fifty individuals have been found so far, mostly partial or fragmentary remains. However, the cumulative total of all of these fossils enables us to get a very good idea of what this animal looked like and also give us some insight concerning its relationship to other armored dinosaurs.

Despite a superficial resemblance to small bipedal ornithischian dinosaurs like Dryosaurus and Hypsilophodon, Scutellosaurus wasn’t simply a small ornithischian with rows of bony studs on its body. Examination of its skull structure shows that Scutellosaurus was actually the most primitive thyreophoran, or armored dinosaur, that we know of. This is the group of dinosaurs which would eventually give rise to the stegosaurs and the ankylosaurs.

Scutellosaurus lawleri. © Jason R. Abdale (April 9, 2025).

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Categories: Paleontology, Uncategorized

Tags: America, art, dinosaur, Early Jurassic, Jurassic Period, Mesozoic, North America, paleo-art, paleontology, Prehistoric, reptile, Scutellosaurus, thyreophoran