Ziapelta
Name: Ziapelta
(Zia shield).
Phonetic: Ze-ah-pel-tah.
Named By: V. M. Arbour, M. E. Burns, R.
M. Sullivan, S. G. Lucas, A. K. Cantrell, J. Fry
& T. L. Suazo - 2014.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Thyreophora, Ankylosauria, Ankylosauridae.
Species: Z. sanjuanensis
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Skull 44 centimetres long.
Known locations: USA, New Mexico - Kirtland
Formation [De-na-zin Member ].
Time period: Campanian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial skull and osteoderms.
Ziapelta
is a genus of ankylosaurid
dinosaur that lived in what is now the USA
during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous. At the time of the
genus description Ziapelta is only known from a
single partial skull
and some osteoderms, the bony plates that grew within the skin as a
form of plated body armour. Further details such as full body length
are uncertain because there are so many variable factors to consider,
but as an ankylosaur, Ziapelta would have had a
clubbed tail,
maybe for inter-species dominance contests, or defence from
predators, or even both reasons.
Ziapelta
shared the same ecosystem as another genus of ankylosaur called
Nodocephalosaurus,
also known from partial remains from the Kirkland
Formation. However there are clear differences between the osteoderms
of these two genera, to the point that there is no question that they
represent completely different genera. Other plant eating dinosaurs
that Ziapelta might have grazed alongside include hadrosaurs
such as
Parasaurolophus
and Kritosaurus,
and ceratopsians
such as
Titanoceratops
and Pentaceratops.
The heavy bony armour formed by the
osteoderms in the skin of Ziapelta would have
formed the last line of
defence against the teeth of large predatory dinosaurs such as the
tyrannosaur
Bistahieversor.
Further reading
- A new ankylosaurid dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous
(Kirtlandian) of New Mexico with implications for ankylosaurid
diversity in the Upper Cretaceous of western North America. - PLoS
ONE 9(9):e108804:1-14. - V. M. Arbour, M. E.
Burns, R. M. Sullivan, S. G. Lucas, A. K. Cantrell,
J. Fry & T. L. Suazo - 2014.
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