Hoplitosaurus

armoured-soldier lizard

• hoplites · Greek · heavily armed soldier
• sauros · Greek · lizard

The name combines the Greek word for a heavily armed foot soldier (a hoplite) with the Greek word for lizard. It refers to the animal's body armour, as an armoured ankylosaur. The type species, H. marshi, honours the paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh. It was first described as a species of Stegosaurus before being given its own genus.

Named by

Lucas

Year named

1902

Period

Early Cretaceous

Found in

Lakota Formation, South Dakota, USA

An armoured ankylosaurian dinosaur (usually placed among the polacanthine nodosaurids). Some researchers have suggested it is closely related to, or possibly the same as, the British genus Polacanthus, but it is generally treated as a valid genus. The exact age within the Early Cretaceous is uncertain.