Anoplosaurus

unarmed lizard

• anoplos · Greek · unarmed
• sauros · Greek · lizard

The name combines the Greek "anoplos", meaning unarmed or without weapons, with "sauros", meaning lizard. It was chosen because the fragmentary remains showed no obvious armour or weaponry, in contrast to related armoured dinosaurs such as Acanthopholis.

Named by

Seeley

Year named

1879

Period

Cretaceous

Found in

Cambridge Greensand, Cambridgeshire, England

Generally regarded as a nomen dubium because the fossils are fragmentary and lack distinguishing features. The material is usually thought to belong to an armoured dinosaur (probably a nodosaurid ankylosaur). The type species is A. curtonotus. The exact age of the Cambridge Greensand fossils is uncertain because the deposit contains reworked material, so no stage is given.