Gargoyleosaurus
Name:
Gargoyleosaurus
(Gargoyle lizard).
Phonetic: Gar-goy-l-o-sore-us.
Named By: K. Carpenter, C. Miles &
K. Cloward - 1998.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Thyreophora, Ankylosauria, Nodosauridae,
Polacanthinae.
Species: G. parkpinorum
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Estimated about 3 to 4 meters long.
Skull 29 centimetres long.
Known locations: USA, Wyoming - Morrison
Formation.
Time period: Kimmerdigian to Tithonian of the
Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Skull and post cranial
skeleton.
After Mymoorapelta in 1994, Gargoyleosaurus was the second ankylosaur to be named from the Morrison Formation. Specifically Gargoyleosaurus is a polacanthine dinosaur and had an arrangement of bony armour and spikes across its back and sides. Gargoyleosaurus also had a large bony plate that covered its hips from above. This armour was an adaption against the large theropod theropods of Jurassic North America such as Ceratosaurus and Allosaurus. Gargoyleosaurus were herbivores that would have browsed upon low growing vegetation that they could easily reach.
Further reading
- Skull of a Jurassic ankylosaur (Dinosauria), K. Carpenter,
C. Miles & K. Cloward - 1998.
- Redescription of Gargoyleosaurus parkpinorum,
a polacanthid
ankylosaur from the Upper Jurassic of Albany County, Wyoming, B.
Killbourne and K. Carpenter - 2005.
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