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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – When the bones of the first armored dinosaur Scelidosaurus were unearthed in 1858 in West Dorset, England, they formed the first complete dinosaur skeleton ever identified.
But aside from the cursory works of pioneering British paleontologist Richard Owen in 1861 and 1863 that incompletely described its anatomy, Scelidosaurus was long neglected despite the historical nature of its discovery.
That has now changed, with the first comprehensive evaluation of its fossils finally giving Scelidosaurus its due, showing that
it had a unique anatomy and determined its place in the dinosaur family tree.
Cambridge University paleontologist David Norman said that Scelidosaurus, which lived about 193 million years ago, was a
An early member of the evolutionary lineage that led to the group of dinosaurs called ankylosaurs. Ankylosaurs were so heavily armored, some even wielded a bony club at the end of their tails, that they are called tank dinosaurs.
There has been a long-standing debate as to whether Scelidosaurus was an ancestor of another group called stegosaurs,
known for the bony plates on his back.
Scelidosaurus was a four-legged, four-legged herbivore covered in bony, spiky armor. His face was covered in horny shields, a bit like the face of a sea turtle. It was a moderately agile animal with defensive spines to deter predators.
“It has a lot of fascinating anatomy,” Norman said.
Scelidosaurus is among the earliest known members of an even larger group of dinosaurs called ornithischians and provides new insights into the origins of this group.
This individual was likely the victim of a flash flood and drowned in the sea, with his body buried in sediment.
“This animal was discovered at a crucial moment in the history of dinosaur research. It was handed over to man (Owen) who
He invented the name ‘dinosaur’ in 1842 and gave him the opportunity to finally demonstrate what dinosaurs really were like.
Until then, dinosaurs were only known from the remains of bones and some teeth, “said Norman, whose fourth research paper describing Scelidosaurus was published this month in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society of London.
“Interestingly, Owen did not adequately describe it and it is in the collection of the Natural History Museum in London; researchers knew it by name but it was not fully understood,” Norman added.
(Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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