thyreophoran

Scutellosaurus

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…. Read More ›

Scelidosaurus

Scelidosaurus was a 12 foot long armored dinosaur which lived in Europe (and also possibly in North America) during the early Jurassic Period 200-195 million years ago. Scelidosaurus is the most well-known European early Jurassic dinosaur because numerous specimens have… Read More ›

Gastonia

Introduction Gastonia was an armored dinosaur measuring approximately 16.5 feet long which lived in western North America during the early Cretaceous Period approximately 135-130 million years ago. The first specimens were found in eastern Utah in 1989, and more have… Read More ›

Hylaeosaurus

Hylaeosaurus was a 15 foot long armored dinosaur which lived in England (and possibly elsewhere in Europe) during the early Cretaceous Period approximately 135 million years ago. The bones of this animal were discovered in July 1832 within Tilgate Forest,… Read More ›

Wuerhosaurus

Wuerhosaurus was a stegosaur dinosaur which lived in China during the early and middle Cretaceous Period. It was one of the last stegosaurs to have existed, as they had largely been replaced elsewhere in the world by the ankylosaurians by… Read More ›

Gargoyleosaurus

When people think of “armored dinosaurs”, they generally think of two kinds of creature: the stegosaurs and the ankylosaurs. Both of these groups belong to the dinosaur sub-order Thyreophora, which means “armor-bearing” in ancient Greek. The dinosaur group Ankylosauria or… Read More ›

Stegosaurus

Introduction There are over a thousand species of dinosaurs that are known to science today. Kids, it seems, are more disposed to remember these names than adults, and I have encountered several examples of children trying to impress people by… Read More ›