Cedarpelta

Name: Cedarpelta ‭(‬Cedar shield‭ ‬-‭ ‬after the Cedar Mountain Formation‭)‬.
Phonetic: See-dar-pel-tah.
Named By: K.‭ ‬Carpenter,‭ ‬J.‭ ‬I.‭ ‬Kirkland,‭ ‬D.‭ ‬Birge‭ & ‬J.‭ ‬Bird‭ ‬-‭ ‬2001.
Classification: Chordata,‭ ‬Reptilia,‭ ‬Dinosauria,‭ ‬Ornithischia,‭ ‬Thyreophora,‭ ‬Ankylosauria,‭ ‬Ankylosauridae.
Species: C.‭ ‬bilbeyhallorum‭ (‬type‭)‬.‭
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Unknown due to lack of remains,‭ ‬but skull is roughly estimated to have been about‭ ‬60‭ ‬centimetres long.
Known locations: USA,‭ ‬Utah‭ ‬-‭ ‬Cedar Mountain Formation,‭ ‬Mussentuchit Member.
Time period: Aptian/Albian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Two partial skulls,‭ ‬one disarticulated.‭ ‬Possible post cranial remains as well.

       Cedarpelta is not a particularly famous ankylosaurid dinosaur,‭ ‬and it does not have a huge amount of fossils attributed to it.‭ ‬However it was the first ankylosaurid genera where a skull was found disarticulated‭ (‬broken up during fossilisation‭)‬.‭ ‬This might initially sound like a bad thing,‭ ‬but usually ankylosaurid skulls are found articulated,‭ ‬which can make it very difficult for palaeontologists to examine the individual bones of the skull without deliberately damaging a rare and valuable fossil specimen.‭ ‬The disarticulated‭ ‬skull,‭ ‬alongside the fully articulated one which is the genus holotype,‭ ‬has allowed for a far greater study into the construction of the skulls of these kinds of dinosaurs.
       Aside from the skulls,‭ ‬the describers also described a list of ankylosaurid fossils that may also belong to Cedarpelta.‭ ‬Details about total size and layout of armour still remain hard‭ ‬to establish about Cedarpelta.‭ ‬Like all other dinosaurs of its kind however,‭ ‬Cedarpelta would have been a fairly squat quadrupedal dinosaur that specialised in foraging for low growing vegetation.‭
       Cedarpelta would have likely shared its habitat with other armoured dinosaurs such as Animantarx and Peloroplites,‭ ‬both of which are also known from the same Fossil member as Cedarpelta.‭ ‬Gastonia is also present in the Cedar Mountain Formation,‭ ‬and Sauropelta has also been speculated to be there,‭ ‬though those fossils might belong to Peloroplites.‭ ‬The original description of Cedarpelta by Carpenter et al.‭ ‬in‭ ‬2001‭ ‬suggested that Cedarpelta may be a close relative of the Asian ankylosaurs Shamosaurus and Gobisaurus,‭ ‬and although this has been questioned in the past,‭ ‬further fossils discoveries have re-confirmed this idea.

Further reading
-‭ ‬Disarticulated skull of a new primitive ankylosaurid from the Lower Cretaceous of Utah.‭ ‬in Carpenter,‭ ‬K.‭ (‬editor‭) ‬2001,‭ ‬K.‭ ‬Carpenter,‭ ‬J.‭ ‬I.‭ ‬Kirkland,‭ ‬D.‭ ‬Birge‭ & ‬J.‭ ‬Bird‭ ‬-‭ ‬2001.
-‭ ‬Ankylosaurs from the Price River Quarries,‭ ‬Cedar Mountain Formation‭ (‬Lower Cretaceous‭)‬,‭ ‬east-central Utah,‭ ‬Kenneth Carpenter,‭ ‬Jeff Bartlett,‭ ‬John Bird‭ & ‬Reese Barrick‭ ‬-‭ ‬2008.



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