Scolosaurus
Name:
Scolosaurus
(Pointed spike lizard).
Phonetic: Sko-low-sore-us.
Named By: Franz Nopsca - 1928.
Synonyms: Oohktokia?
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Ankylosauridae, Ankylosaurinae.
Species: S. cutleri (type),
S. thronus.
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Roughly about 6-6.5 meters long.
Known locations: Canada, Alberta - Dinosaur
Park Formation. USA - Montana - Two Medicine Formation.
Time period: Campanian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Based upon an almost complete
skeleton with osteoderms and skin impressions. Additional remains
attributed to the genus.
Scolosaurus
was quick to become one of the better known ankylosaurid
dinosaurs of
the second half of the early twentieth century, at times rivalling
even Ankylosaurus
in popular media about dinosaurs. This was thanks
largely to the relatively complete preservation of the holotype
individual was considerably higher than most other ankylosaurids known
at that time. Then in 1971 a study by Walter Coombs saw a
simplification in ankylosaurs that were living in North America during
the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous. Coombs stated that there
was only one true genus of ankylosaurid dinosaur living at this time,
and so he took the genera Anodontosaurus, Dyoplosaurus,
Euoplocephalus
and Scolosaurus and placed them all as one, and
since
Euoplocephalus was the first of these genera to be
named, its name
took priority, with the other three genera being hailed as junior
synonyms to it.
Almost
immediately this meant that reconstructions of Euoplocephalus
began to
appear based upon the Scolosaurus holotype material
given the much
greater completeness of this specimen, and this in turn significantly
raised the profile of the Euoplocephalus genus.
This continued for
the remainder of the twentieth century but by the early twenty-first
serious doubts would be cast about Coombs study. The problem, the
synonymisation of these four genera is that Coombs gave no absolute
proof that these genera were all the same other than they were living
in the same geographical area at the same approximate time as one
another. By 2009, a study by Arbour, Burnsa and Sissona led to
the genus Dyoplosaurus being taken away from Euoplocephalus
and
re-established as its own genus. Then in 2013 a study by
Penkalski and Blows saw Scolosaurus re-established
as its own genus
separate from Euoplocephalus. At the time of
writing Scolosaurus is
once again widely regarded as a distinct genus, though a 2013
study by Arbour and Currie has suggested that the genus Oohktokia
is
a junior synonym to Scolosaurus, though other
researchers continue to
keep it separate.
As
an actual dinosaur, Scolosaurus is thought to
have been a medium
sized ankylosaur which like its relatives had thick skin covered in
bony armour plates called osteoderms, while a clubbed tail could have
provided significant defence from larger predators of the time such
as tyrannosaurs.
Other herbivorous dinosaurs that Scolosaurus
likely
encountered would have included hadrosaurs
and ceratopsian
dinosaurs,
while ornithomimids
(possibly omnivorous) were also running around.
Further reading
- Palaeontological notes on reptiles. V. On the skull of the
Upper Cretaceous dinosaur Euoplocephalus. Geologica Hungarica,
Series Palaeontologica 1(1):1-84. - B. F. Nopcsa -
1928.
- The Ankylosauridae. Ph.D. thesis - Columbia University,
New York, NY, 487 p. - W. Coombs - 1971.
- Euoplocephalus tutus and the Diversity of
Ankylosaurid Dinosaurs in
the Late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada, and Montana, USA. -
PLoS ONE 8 (5): e62421(Andrew A. Farke .ed). - V.
M. Arbour & P. J. Currie - 2013.
- Scolosaurus cutleri (Ornithischia:
Ankylosauria) from the
Upper Cretaceous Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta, Canada. -
Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. - Paul Penkalski &
William T. Blows - 2013.
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