Scolosaurus

Scolosaurus
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous,
Skeletal mount of the S. thronus holotype at the Royal Tyrell Museum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Ornithischia
Clade: Thyreophora
Clade: Ankylosauria
Family: Ankylosauridae
Subfamily: Ankylosaurinae
Tribe: Ankylosaurini
Genus: Scolosaurus
Nopcsa, 1928
Type species
Scolosaurus cutleri
Other species
  • S. thronus
    Penkalski, 2018
Synonyms

Scolosaurus is an extinct genus of ankylosaurid dinosaurs within the subfamily Ankylosaurinae. It is known from the lower levels of the Dinosaur Park Formation and upper levels of the Oldman Formation in the Late Cretaceous (latest middle Campanian stage, about 76.5 Ma ago) of Alberta, Canada. The genus contains two species, S. cutleri and S. thronus. The type species, S. cutleri, measured up to 5.6 metres (18 ft) in length and 2.2 metric tons (2.4 short tons) in body mass.

The genus was once believed to represent a synonym of the coeval Euoplocephalus, but this is no longer thought to be the case, and Scolosaurus is now accepted as a valid taxon. Some researchers have considered the genus Oohkotokia, known from the also Campanian-aged Two Medicine Formation of Montana, United States, to be synonymous with Scolosaurus.