Acanthopholis
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Acanthopholis Temporal range: Early Cretaceous |
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| Artist's rendering of Acanthopholis | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Sauropsida |
| Superorder: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Ornithischia |
| Suborder: | Thyreophora |
| Infraorder: | Ankylosauria |
| Family: | Nodosauridae |
| Subfamily: |
Acanthopholinae Nopcsa, 1917 |
| Genus: |
Acanthopholis Huxley, 1867 |
| Species | |
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Acanthopholis (/ˌækənˈθɒfoʊlᵻs/; meaning "spiny scales") is a genus of ankylosaurian dinosaur in the family Nodosauridae that lived during the Early Cretaceous Period of England.
Around 1865 commercial fossil collector John Griffiths found some dinosaurian remains, including osteoderms, at the shoreline near Folkestone in Kent, which he sold to the metallurgist Dr. John Percy. Percy brought them to the attention of Thomas Henry Huxley, who paid Griffiths to dig up all fossils he could find at the site. Despite being hampered by the fact that it was located between the tidemarks, he managed to uncover several additional bones and parts of the body armour.
In 1867 Huxley named the genus and species Acanthopholis horridus. The dinosaur's generic name refers to its armour, being derived from Greek ακανθα akantha meaning 'spine' or 'thorn' and φόλις pholis meaning 'scale'. The specific name horridus means 'frightening' or 'rough' in Latin. Arthur Smith Woodward emended the species name to Acanthopholis horrida in 1890 because pholis is feminine.
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