Peloroplites: Beast of the Week

 This week we will be checking out a large tank dinosaur.  Enter Peloroplites cedrimontanus!

Peloroplites was a plant-eating dinosaur that lived in what is now Utah, USA, during the Cretaceous period, between 98 and 93 million years ago.  From snout to tail it would have measured about 20 feet (6m) long.  It's genus name translates to "Giant Hoplite" in reference to hoplites, the ancient Greek soldiers who famously carried spears and large shields.  The species name translates to "Cedar Mountain" in reference of the geologic location in which its bones were found, the Cedar Mountain Formation.

Peloroplites life reconstruction in watercolor by Christopher DiPiazza.

Peloroplites was a member of the ankylosaur group of dinosaurs, famous for their heavy armored bodies.  More specifically within the ankylosaur group, it was in the nodosaur family, which are known for having spiky armor, especially around their necks.  Unlike more iconic ankylosaurs, nodosaurids lacked bony tail clubs.  Gargoyleosaurus and Priconodon are other examples of nodosaurs.

Peloroplites had a particularly boxy skull, with a snout that slopes down at the front.  The beak was broad and had a little notch in the center of it.  It also possessed blunt horns on its cheek bones in addition to thick bony armor on the top of its head. Only one tooth was found for Peloroplites, and it is typical for nodosaurs, proportionally small and leaf-shaped, for cutting plants.  Because of this dinosaur's noticeably wide face, it may have been a generalist feeder, hoovering up any plant material it could reach. 

Pelororoplites skeletal mount on display at the USU Eastern Prehistoric Museum, in Utah, USA.

A good amount of Peloroplites' skeleton is known, including much of its skull and many limb and other body bones, but sadly very little armor.  Because of this the skeletal ad life reconstructions of this dinosaur have the armor and spikes are based on other nodosaurs which we do have the armor of.  (Special thank you to Dr. Kenneth Carpenter, the paleontologist who originally described Peloroplites, for confirming this for me.)

When alive, Peloroplites' habitat would have been seasonally wet/flooded environment on the western shore of the shallow sea that used to be present down the middle of the United States during the Cretaceous.  It coexisted with many other dinosaurs, including the small tyrannosaur, Moros, and the larger theropod, Siats.  

References

 Carpenter, Kenneth; Bartlett, Jeff; Bird, John; Barrick, Reese (2008). "Ankylosaurs from the Price River Quarries, Cedar Mountain Formation (Lower Cretaceous), east-central Utah". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 28 (4): 1089–1101.