Scelidosaurus

What it was like

Scelidosaurus was a heavily built, plant-eating dinosaur that walked on four sturdy legs. Rows of bony studs, called scutes, ran in long lines along its neck, back, and tail, giving it light but effective body armor, even though it lacked the heavy clubs and spikes seen in later armored dinosaurs. It had a small head with a horny beak at the front of the jaws, used to crop low-growing plants that were then broken down in a large gut. Scelidosaurus grew to about 4 meters (13 feet) long.

Its world

Scelidosaurus lived from about 200 to 184 million years ago, during the Early Jurassic, in what is now the United Kingdom. Its fossils come from the Charmouth Mudstone Formation on the English coast, and related remains have also been reported from China.

How it was found

Owen named Scelidosaurus in 1859, based on some of the earliest good dinosaur fossils ever found in the United Kingdom. Eleven fossil finds are known today, including skeletons preserved in remarkable detail, which makes Scelidosaurus one of the best-known early armored dinosaurs despite its age. Even so, its exact place in the dinosaur family tree has been debated for a long time, with some researchers linking it closely to the ankylosaurs and others to the stegosaurs.