Nodosauridae

The Nodosauridae is a family of ankylosaur dinosaurs, from Upper Jurassic to Upper Cretaceous strata of what are now North America, Asia, Antarctica and Europe. They are the family of ankylosaurs which do not have club-shaped tails. They often have spikes protecting their head and shoulders.

Nodosaurids Temporal range: Upper Jurassic – Upper Cretaceous, 155–66 mya
Gargoyleosaurus skeleton cast
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Dinosauria
Order:	†Ornithischia
Clade:	†Thyreophora
Suborder:	†Ankylosauria
Clade:	†Euankylosauria
Family:	†Nodosauridae Marsh, 1890
Subgroups
†Acantholipan †Acanthopholis †Antarctopelta †Dongyangopelta †Hierosaurus? †Horshamosaurus †Hylaeosaurus †Invictarx †Mymoorapelta †Pawpawsaurus †Priconodon? †Nodosaurinae †Polacanthinae †Struthiosaurinae

Edmontonia in Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology

All nodosaurs, like other ankylosaurs, are medium-sized to large, heavily built quadrupedal herbivorous dinosaurs, with small denticulate teeth and rows of osteoderms (a type of armour) on the dorsolateral (top and sides) surfaces of the body.

Classification

Taxonomy

The following taxonomy follows Thompson et al., 2011 unless otherwise noted.^[1]

• Family Nodosauridae
  •  ?Aletopelta (California, Western North America)^[2]
  • Animantarx (Utah, Western North America)
  • Anoplosaurus (England, Northwestern Europe)
  • Antarctopelta (James Ross Island, Northeastern Antarctic Peninsula)
  • Edmontonia (Alberta, Western North America)
  • Gargoyleosaurus (Wyoming, Western North America)
  • Gastonia (Utah, Western North America)
  • Glyptodontopelta (New Mexico, Western North America)^[2]
  • Hoplitosaurus (South Dakota, central North America)
  • Hungarosaurus (Hungary, Central-Southern Europe)
  • Hylaeosaurus (Sussex, Southern England)
  • Mymoorapelta (Colorado, central North America)
  • Niobrarasaurus (Kansas, Western North America)
  • Nodosaurus (Wyoming and Kansas, Western North America)
  • Panoplosaurus (Montana and Alberta, Western North America)
  • Pawpawsaurus (Texas, Western North America)
  • Peloroplites (Utah, Western North America)
  • Polacanthus (Isle of Wight and Sussex, Southern England)
  • Propanoplosaurus (Maryland, Eastern North America)
  • Sauropelta (Wyoming and Montana, Western North America)
  • Silvisaurus (Kansas, Western North America)
  • Stegopelta (Wyoming, Western North America)
  • Struthiosaurus (Central-Southern Europe)
  • Tatankacephalus (Montana, Western North America)
  • Texasetes (Texas, Western North America)
  • Zhejiangosaurus (Zhejiang Province, Eastern China)
• Doubtful Nodosaurids
  • Acanthopholis (United Kingdom, Western Europe)
  • Palaeoscincus

Phylogeny

The clade Nodosauridae may be defined as "all ankylosaurs closer to Panoplosaurus than to Ankylosaurus. Vickaryous et al. considered the most primitive member of the Nodosauridae to be Cedarpelta.^[3] A cladogram from a 2011 analysis is shown by Richard S. Thompson and colleagues.^[1]

References

1. Richard S. Thompson; et al. (2011). "Phylogeny of the ankylosaurian dinosaurs (Ornithischia: Thyreophora)". Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. 10 (2): 301–312. doi:10.1080/14772019.2011.569091. S2CID 86002282.
2. Burns, Michael E. (2008). "Taxonomic utility of ankylosaur (Dinosauria, Ornithischia) osteoderms: Glyptodontopelta mimus Ford, 2000: a test case". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 28 (4): 1102–1109. doi:10.1671/0272-4634-28.4.1102. S2CID 140672072.
3. Vickaryous M.K; Maryanska T. and Weishampel D.B. 2004. Ankylosauria. In The Dinosauria. 2nd ed, Weishampel D.B; Dodson P. and Osmólska H. (eds) University of California Press.