Scolosaurus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 76.5 Ma |
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Type specimen at Natural History Museum, London | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Order: | †Ornithischia |
Family: | †Ankylosauridae |
Subfamily: | †Ankylosaurinae |
Genus: |
†Scolosaurus Nopcsa, 1928 |
Type species | |
†Scolosaurus cutleri Nopcsa, 1928 |
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Synonyms | |
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Scolosaurus is an extinct genus of ankylosaurid dinosaurs within the subfamily Ankylosaurinae. It is known from either the lower levels of the Dinosaur Park Formation or upper levels of the Oldman Formation (the location of the type specimen's quarry is uncertain) in the Late Cretaceous (latest middle Campanian stage, about 76.5 Ma ago) of Alberta, Canada. It contains a single species, Scolosaurus cutleri. It is the oldest known North American ankylosaurid.
Scolosaurus was named by Franz Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás in 1928, based on holotype NHMUK R.5161, a nearly complete specimen that preserves the entire skeleton except for the distal end of the tail, the right forelimb, the right hindlimb, and the skull. The rare preservation of osteoderms and skin impression are also present. The fossil skeleton was discovered by William Edmund Cutler of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in 1914 at Quarry 80 of the Deadlodge Canyon locality. It was collected from the bottom of the Dinosaur Park Formation in fine-grained sandstone and fine-grained claystone sediments that were deposited during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 76.5 million years ago. This makes it the oldest known North American ankylosaurid. The holotype specimen is housed in the collection of the Natural History Museum in London, England.