Named By: | Edwin Harris Colbert in 1981 |
Time Period: | Early Jurassic, 196 Ma |
Location: | USA - Arizona - Kayenta Formation |
Size: | 1.2 meters long |
Diet: | Herbivore |
Fossil(s): | Remains of at least two individuals |
Classification: | | Chordata | Reptilia | Dinosauria | Ornithischia | Thyreophora | |
Scutellosaurus ( skoo-TEL-oh-SAW-ras) is an extinct genus of thyreophoran ornithischian dinosaur that lived approximately 196 million years ago during the early part of the Jurassic Period in what is now Arizona, USA. It is classified in Thyreophora, the armoured dinosaurs; its closest relatives may have been Emausaurus and Scelidosaurus, another armored dinosaur which was mainly a quadrupedal dinosaur, unlike bipedal Scutellosaurus. It is one of the earliest representatives of the armored dinosaurs and the basalmost form discovered to date. Scutellosaurus was a small, lighly-built, ground-dwelling, herbivore, that could grow up to an estimated 1.2 m (3.9 ft) long.