Hoplitosaurus
| Hoplitosaurus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous,
| |
|---|---|
| Spined plate | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | †Ornithischia |
| Clade: | †Thyreophora |
| Clade: | †Ankylosauria |
| Family: | †Nodosauridae |
| Subfamily: | †Polacanthinae |
| Genus: | †Hoplitosaurus Lucas, 1902 |
| Type species | |
| Hoplitosaurus marshi Lucas, 1901
| |
Hoplitosaurus (meaning "Hoplite lizard") was a genus of armored dinosaur related to Polacanthus. It was named from a partial skeleton found in the Barremian (Early Cretaceous) Lakota Formation of Custer County, South Dakota. It is an obscure genus which has been subject to some misinterpretation of its damaged remains. Although there was a push to synonymize it with Polacanthus in the late 1980s-early 1990s, Hoplitosaurus has been accepted as a valid albeit poorly known genus in more recent reviews.